The Alola Pokedex
by The Vulture Queen
Summary: A guide to the capture, care and keeping of the pokemon of Alola. Contains references to reproduction, anatomy and violence par for the course in an Animal Planet documentary or a biology textbook. Mutually canonical with "Broken Things."
1. Decidueye

**Dartrix (Rowlet, Decidueye)**

Overview

Rowlet is one of the three traditional starters in the Alola region, alongside litten and popplio. It is something of a middle ground between the ease of care but aloofness of torracat or the difficult but highly social and intelligent brionne. The species has a long history of coevolution with the seafolk. While not domesticated, they are easily adjusted to working with humans. Rowlet born in captivity seem to accept humans as large, featherless decidueye.

Physiology

Rowlet and dartrix are grass- and flying-types. Decidueye are officially grass- and ghost-type, although there is some controversy over whether or not they should retain the flying classification as well. This guidebook will not delve into the controversy over the so-called triple-typings and adheres to the official rulings of the Department of Agriculture.

All stages of dartrix possess excellent hearing and night vision. Rowlet and dartrix can see perfectly well on cloudy nights with a new moon. Captive decidueye have been able to strike targets in near-perfect darkness in laboratories. It is presently unclear how they manage this, as there is no evidence they use echolocation. Rowlet are born pure white and slowly develop their colors as photosynthetic symbiote colonies grow inside of their feathers.

Rowlet resemble a small, almost spherical owl with pale brown body feathers, a white mask and a green crest on their chest. It is widely, and incorrectly, believed that this crest forms two intersecting ovals in the rough shape of deciduous leaves. While some Rowlet do have crests like this, the exact shape and shade is unique to each rowlet. The crests of related rowlets are usually similar, allowing them to serve as an identifier.

Dartrix are slightly wider than rowlet. Adults in Alola are usually about 60 centimeters tall, but with controlled diet, humidty and sunlight, some captive dartrix have grown up to one meter They gain a green headcrest and the brown feathers on their body darken considerably. Mature dartrix have developed projectile "blade feathers" that aren't actually feathers at all, but rather thin hairs coated in keratin. These replace their talons as their main form of defense.

Decidueye are usually between 1.7 and 2 meters tall. Their green crests grow to surround their entire head and an orange one forms where their crest originally was as a rowlet. Decidueye wings are dark brown. Their quills are much sharper and harder than those of dartrix, and a trained decidueye is capable of shooting them at speeds of up to fifty meters per second at ranges of up to five-hundred meters.

Dartrix can live up to thirty years in the wild and twenty-five in captivity. Decidueye never die of old age in the presence of combat and stress.

Behavior

Wild rowlet are nocturnal, although captive rowlet can be quickly trained to be crepuscular or diurnal. They perch on top of the highest trees in their area and spread their wings to allow their symbiotic bacteria to photosynthesize. At night, they leave their perches and eat leaves. This is both for nutritional reasons and to clear up more space to roost in direct sunlight during the day. In spite of their representation in folklore as powerful hunters, all stages of the evolutionary line are strictly herbivorous (this is not true for all subspecies, see Subspecies).

Their reputation comes from the hunts of decidueye. When dartrix face predators, the decidueye in the flock are known to set out at night (or, for diurnal predators, in the day) and assassinate all members of the predator species within a several kilometer radius. Some subspecies have also been documented killing even the predators that did not hunt dartrix so, in the future, those predator species will aggressively cull any others that get too aggressive with dartrix nests.

In captivity, rowlet are intensely social while awake and prefer to rest in direct sunlight or cuddle against warm-blooded animals or other rowlet for warmth. When allowed to do so, they will frequently perch on top of their trainers. Dartrix, thankfully, grow out of this practice. They still enjoy engulfing their trainer in their wings. The purpose of this behavior is unclear.

Decidueye's behavioral differences will be further detailed in the Evolution section.

Husbandry

It is best to acquire a member of the line while it is still in its first evolutionary stage. As it develops into an adult (see Evolution), it should seldom be placed inside of a pokéball or separated from its trainer for more than twenty-four hours at a time. Separation for any length of time is stressful for very young rowlet and should be avoided whenever possible. They should be exposed to direct sunlight for at least six hours a day, five days a week. If this is infeasible, most Pokémon Centers in Alola have rooms which can simulate natural sunlight. These rooms in the busiest Centers are typically filled with rowlet and dartrix, allowing for socialization (and an exercise in remembering your rowlet's crest). During periods of particular stress, rowlet prefer to be cradled by humans or dartrix or, at the very least, given a cramped space to hide in.

The dartrix line have very inefficient digestive systems and, like most birds, they tend to defecate whenever they get ready to fly. Thankfully, rowlet and dartrix much prefer short hops and walking on their talons to flight (see Battling). They are still quite difficult to housebreak and the only real consolation is that their waste is more solid, and thus easier to clean up, than most birds. There is a five hundred dollar fine for not cleaning up your dartrix's waste in a public area.

All stages of the dartrix line should be fed a special blend of leaf-based food sold in all Pokémon Centers in Alola, and most pokémon equipment and sporting goods stores. Adult dartrix can be held in pokeballs for considerable lengths of time, although most find this irritating and using their pokéball frequently will undermine their trust in you as their trainer. Dartrix without a photosynthesis-condusive pokéball should get thirty hours of direct or simulated sunlight a week. Decidueye need only three hours of sunlight per week, although they will become more active if exposed to more light. Decidueye also tend not to have strong feelings on being held in their pokéballs.

Illness

The most common illness by far for all stages of the dartrix line is feather bleaching. During a bleaching episode, a dartrix loses all color in their feathers and become pure white across their entire body. Bleaching can be caused by prolonged exposure to cold temperatures, severe injury, inadequate exposure to sunlight, low humidity, isolation, disease, starvation, overeating or for no apparent reason at all. So long as conditions are quickly rectified and the dartrix is given a few days to rest and either exposure to other dartrix or injections of symbiotic bacteria the problem will usually be resolved within a week. If your dartrix begins to bleach, immediately consult a veterinarian.

It should be noted that molting, the loss of feathers in certain parts of the body and slow regrowth of initially white feathers, is separate from bleaching. Unless feathers don't gain color for over a month in an adult or three months in a juvenile or molting occurs across the entire body at once it is not necessary to consult a veterinarian.

Evolution

Rowlet naturally evolve into dartrix provided food, sunlight, companionship and time. The formal point where a rowlet becomes a dartrix is the growth of a full headcrest. This typically occurs when a rowlet is nine months old. It takes another five for a dartrix to fully mature and become ready for their next evolution.

Wild decidueye are exceedingly rare. In times of great external stress, such as pandemics, sudden habitat loss, natural disasters, competition for their roosting spaces, or predation, the eldest dartrix in the quiver will begin to rapidly gain size and start to develop projectile quills. This will continue to happen with more dartrix evolving one by one until the crisis is resolved. Decidueye only live for one to three years after the most recent crisis.

In captivity, projectile quills can be surgically removed, rendering evolution impossible. Otherwise, a dartrix exposed to enough battles over the course of roughly one year (or a handful of particularly dire ones in rapid succession) will begin to evolve on its own. During evolution, dartrix should be offered greatly increased amounts of food and sunlight and given as much as it wants of both.

For a variety of reasons, dartrix evolution is not recommended for all but the most serious of trainers. Decidueye cut off from frequent, high-level battles tend to decline in health and die within a few years. This makes retirement effectively impossible for decidueye trainers. Decidueye also undergo a change in temperment arguably greater than their change in appearance. Decidueye sleep less than two hours a day and spend the remainder of their time hyper-vigilant and seeking out battles. If no opponents are presented to them in formal engagement, they will tend to pick their own fights.

They otherwise lose almost all of the cuddly and expressive nature that dartrix are known for. While they will usually not decline physical affection, they will almost never initiate it. They will stand guard for their trainer when outside of their pokéball and do little else. Because of this, many trainers who evolve their dartrix complain about a death of personality in their beloved pet and some will lose interest and abandon their decidueye. The shock of losing the quiver they evolved to protect paired with the combat withdrawal will usually kill the decidueye within six months. Decidueye seldom accept new trainers once abandoned, although many will adopt a new trainer when their old one dies.

Battle

Rowlet and dartrix are relatively durable pokémon and both are far more clever than they would appear. They have naturally good aim for the handful of projectile attacks they have. Unfortunately, they are not so capable at flying as to be able to dodge projectile attacks. Most dartrix and all rowlet are unable to dodge melee moves from average-size pokémon. They also tend to loathe battling and must be bribed into each individual fight. As such, they are not the recommended starter for trainers interested in serious battling.

Decidueye, as mentioned above, are addicted to combat and violence. They are much more adept fliers than dartrix, have near-silent movement and can put their natural aim to much better use with their quills. The species signature attack, spirit shackle, allows them to pin foes down for a short period of time, making it harder for the opponent to dodge shots or close the distance. The species has two groups of counters. The first are pokémon capable of taking a quill to any point of their body and continuing to fight because they are very durable and have no exploitable weak points. Opponents with no major weak points that can take an arrow or two and then retaliate with an even more powerful fire- or ice-type projectile move. Decidueye tend not to surrender fights until they are physically incapable of continuing, so a trainer should be mindful of the above and withdraw their decidueye if they appear to be visibly hurt.

On the professional circuits, Alolan decidueye were one of the top 1000 most used pokémon in Global Battle Federation tournaments until the late 2000s which was impressive given their very limited range and the control the Alolan government exercises over the species distribution. Their usage has declined due to the corresponding rise in South Island decidueye usage (see Subspecies)

Acquisition

Children between the ages of ten and twenty can obtain a rowlet from certified distributors free of charge with a Class I certification. Children who have cleared the grand trial on at least one island and did not receive a rowlet as a starter can purchase or adopt an additional one. Dartrix in licensed shelters can be adopted with a Class II license or higher. Decidueye adoptions are handled on a case-by-case basis.

Dartrix quivers are found in Poni Meadow, Exeggutor Island, Tapu Forest and Lush Jungle. It is illegal to collect any member of the line from the wild without explicit government approval. It is also entirely unnecessary given the strength of captive breeding programs.

Breeding

In the wild, dartrix pairs mate for life. Every three years, all of the unpaired dartrix gather away from the rest of the flock. One or two decidueye will keep watch. The males engage in an elaborate competition of skill and showmanship, including an archery contest. The females will then select their mates. Homosexuality has been observed in wild and captive dartrix with the rate appearing to increase in larger quivers. It is speculated that this evolved as a form of population control. Every Spring, dartrix mate and bring the eggs to a central location in the territory. Most of the flock's decidueye will shift to guarding the eggs, with a few watching the rowlet and dartrix instead. If there are no decidueye, the oldest dartrix will take over egg-watching duties. The eggs hatch after roughly three months. All adults help raise all of the quiver's rowlet.

Captive breeding requires a Class IV license with an additional certification in dartrix breeding. The certification course has further information.

Subspecies

As island-dwellers with limited flight, there are nearly two dozen subspecies of dartrix. As such, this section will not cover them all in detail.

Indonesian and Filipino dartrix (Filipino, Sumatran, Javan, Bornean, Varirata) typically have wingspans twice those of their Alolan counterparts at all stages. They are also much more capable fliers, and even some rowlet are capable of sustained, powered flight for a kilometer or more. Most of these subspecies are omnivorous during the wet season. However, their quills are not nearly as developed as the other subspecies and they hunt primarily through a combination of their talons and their silent flight.

The Queensland dartrix is the only subspecies with naturally venomous quills. Queensland decidueye are less than a meter tall and their dartrix are correspondingly small. Their quills take several weeks to regenerate. Between these two drawbacks, they have not gained much popularity in the competitive battling scene.

The small islands of the Pacific are littered with different dartrix subspecies. Most of them are quite similar to the Alolan dartrix, but smaller. Almost all are endangered. The Heahea conservatory has an exhibit showcasing several of these subspecies.

New Zealand previously had two subspecies of dartrix. The North Island dartrix is now extinct and the South Island dartrix at risk of extirpation. South Island dartrix regularly evolve into decidueye, regardless of external stressors. They are also nearly as large as the Sumatran decidueye and have much thicker coats. Despite their wingspan, they are nearly flightless and only use their wings for getting into and out of trees and slowing falls. Their primary weapons are their quills, by far the largest of any subspecies of decidueye. South Island decidueye make up for the seasonably variable amounts of sunlight in their environment by being carnivorous. During the summer they stay nearly stationary with their wings spread out in a field. In the long winter nights, they take up position on a low tree branch and wait to kill anything that crosses by.

South Island decidueye form mated pairs until their chicks evolve into dartrix, at which point the pairs split up and leave the dartrix on their own.

While they have nearly been hunted to extinction in New Zealand, an invasive population in the Canadian boreal has grown tremendously over the last two decades. The latest estimates placed the decidueye population in Alberta alone at over ten thousand, almost as large as the population of the total population of the Alolan decidueye. They have become a major safety risk for humans in the area, as they will kill and eat any human who enters their territory in the winter and it is all but impossible to notice a South Island decidueye before it notices you.

Due to legalized hunting and capture of Canadian decidueye, they are now the most common subspecies on the international battling scene. Seven of the Top 100 Trainers have a South Island decidueye on their main team, with only one currently using an Alolan decidueye. Further down the rankings, the Alolan decidueye is more commonly used, but still not more used than the South Island decidueye.

The South Island decidueye is also the ninth most lethal pokémon to humans worldwide (excluding disease transmission) and require a Class V license to possess in the United States.


	2. Incineroar

**Torracat (Litten, Incineroar)**

Overview

Fire-types have a reputation for forgoing strategy in favor of a barrage of smoke and flame. Torracat largely avert this; in the wild they are pack hunters that barely use their flames. Incineroar, however, plays the reputation straight. Contrary to the stigma around fire-types that they are difficult to control, Torracat are the tamest and friendliest of the Alolan feline pokémon, even if their means of expressing affection can come off as detached and distant to those unused to working with cats. Incineroar have odder behaviors, but are perhaps friendlier to humans while in captivity.

The primary appeal of torracat as a starter rests in their typicality. Children who grew up in a household with a pet feline already have a headstart in caring for and understanding their first partner. Additionally, torracat avert the typical territoriality of felines and are quick to accept new partners.

Champion Luna's incineroar has inspired a great many trainers hoping to get into serious battling to pick a litten as their first pokémon. It should be noted here that incineroar evolution takes time, luck and a willingness to go without the torracat for a while. Unevolved torracat are still lovable and capable of winning even moderately high level battles if used well. Going without evolution is a perfectly reasonable choice for a trainer on an island quest.

Physiology

Litten and torracat are classified as pure-fire types. Incineroar is classified as a dual fire- and dark-type due to their resistance to telepathic attacks.

Litten have a rather typical feline bodyshape, with the exception of a larger-than-average head for their size. They are colored black with red stripes on their legs and a red crest on their forehead. The exact hue and the shape of the crest vary by age and individual. Litten possess an internal flame sac right below the junction of their neck and torso. All stages of the torracat line have thick, flame-resistant skin. Their fur is surprisingly flammable. It is the fur they collect during grooming that serves as their primary flame source. However, the time required for fur to regrow does provide a limit to how much fire they are able to use in a given period of time, even with diet supplements.

Torracat are physiologically similar. They are far larger than their juvenile counterpart, growing up to roughly 0.75 meters in height at the shoulder, but the growth is mostly proportional. Torracat gain red stripes on their back and tail, and their head crest becomes more prominent. They also gain pronounced red whiskers that give them a sense of the thermal gradient around them. The most significant change is the growth of a bell-like structure protruding from the flame sack. The bell is not metallic, rather, it is made of bone and coated in natural oils. The bell helps regulate the release of flames, something litten tend to struggle with. They are also capable of emitting a variety of sounds that other torracat can pick up on up to two kilometers away.

Incineroar are far larger with external flames around their waist. They typically reach roughly one meter in height at the shoulder. Contrary to popular belief, incineroar are primarily quadrupeds that sometimes rear up on two legs to reach higher, deliver more powerful blows with their forelegs, or intimidate opponents. Their paws, claws and teeth are proportionally larger than torracat's, and their muscles are more powerful and prominent. The incineroar's headcrest has grown to encompass almost the entire head. Incineroar have replaced their reproductive system with additional flame sacs, allowing for more control and power. These replace the torracat's bell.

Torracat can live up to twenty-five years in captivity and fifteen in the wild. Incineroar typically live about ten years after evolution, regardless of their age beforehand.

Behavior

Torracat, like most felines, understand human behaviors and desires through the lens of their own. Many people are vexed by their tendency to stay within the same room as their trainers, but seldom initiate physical affection. They will even frequently reject petting or grooming from even longtime trainers. This is not because of a lack of love, although many litten are initially skeptical of terrifyingly large non-torracat mammals with unknown intentions. They do this because of a belief that humans desire the same personal space as a torracat does.

Additionally, due to the use of fur as a fuel source, it is extremely uncommon for a torracat to allow someone else to groom them. As such, the offer of grooming (which is what they interpret petting as) is an insult to them. They sometimes allow humans to do it for reasons that are poorly understood, and this should be treated as a great honor.

In captivity, torracat will frequently approach other mammals and offer to groom them to build up their fuel reserves. They will even do this with humans, although their preferred method of doing so is licking human eyebrows with their rather coarse tongues. They can be trained not to do this through simple negative reinforcement with a spray bottle filled with water. Many trainers are reluctant to irritate their pets, but torracat are quick to pick up on humans' boundaries with regards to grooming and will usually stop after the first one or two reprimands. To humans they have respect for, anyway. They will often weather water sprays just to irritate a human a torracat doesn't like. This is a good first sign that either the litten needs replaced with a more compatible companion or serious effort needs to be put in to earning the litten's respect. A torracat licking a human's eyebrows after several reprimands is an indication that the cat should be donated to the Department of Natural Resources' (DNR) breeding program before the insubordination escalates.

Torracat seldom harm humans in the wild or captivity and very well-trained torracat can be trusted alone with infants and toddlers.

Incineroar spend most of their time caring for their young in the wild. Typically one incineroar in a pair will hunt or sleep while the other watches the litten. Once a pair's litten have evolved and left them, they will often appear to be lost and sleep far more than they previously did. They will sometimes seek to rectify this situation by adopting orphaned babies of other pokémon species. Sometimes they will even adopt babies that are orphaned because of the incineroar's own hunts.

Husbandry

At eighteen months of age, litten can be used in battle or gifted to trainers without a Class I breeding license and DNR approval. At this point litten have fully developed coats and flame sacks. The litten provided to trainers are almost all male, as female litten are retained in the breeding program. Sometimes a female litten that is particularly curious or combative will be given to trainers alongside the males, or a male litten that is physically or tempermentally unsuitable to be given to children will be retained.

Litten will generally provide their own exercise if allowed out of their pokéball for at least twenty hours a week for non-battling purposes. This exercise may be detrimental to the integrity of furniture and camping supplies, so it is advised to let them blow off steam in battle or more structured play with other team members or their trainer.

Even when properly exercised, torracat and litten are well-known to scratch furniture and walls to mark their territory. This makes them somewhat unsuitable to be indoor pets for retired trainers without either extensive training and a close bond or a professionally done cat-proofing. They do not mark their territory through urination and are easily trained in the use of litter boxes and, on walks, vacant lots while no other humans are around.

All stages of the torracat line are not averse to rain and quite enjoy playing in it. Torracat and litten will even take submerging baths if water is provided, although they will not do so if they are forced to take them. Torracat can not be safely submerged for more than ten minutes at a time. Incineroar can not be safely submerged for any length of time (see Illness). However, moderate rain and almost all water-type attacks will not be enough to kill an incineroar.

Torracat and litten are omnivores. They will happily eat feline pokémon food sold in every Pokémon Center and pet shop in Alola, although they will require roughly 30% more food than recommended for a generic feline pokémon as they literally burn more calories than other cats. They will also happily eat most produce given to them. They prefer dried produce as it is more easily ignited. Torracat will not eat more dried fruit than they need. As such, it is advised to give them an overabundance at meal times and then simply remove and repackage what was not eaten.

Unlike most felines, torracat crave additional fur to eat. This makes pokémon with high maintenance needs and thick fur, such as furfrou, lopunny or cinccino, ideal partners. Vulpix also qualify provided the torracat or litten is adopted first. See the entry on vulpix for more information. If it is not possible to provide a mammalian partner, fur supplements can be purchased in Pokémon Centers. However, these supplements, especially the high quality ones, are rather expensive for pokémon food.

Incineroar are carnivores and apex predators and will require very large amounts of calories and fur to sustain themselves. The exact details vary by incineroar, but it is best to assume they will need 20% of their body weight in meat and 10% in fur every week. Incineroar will continue to groom team members that allow them to do so, but most pokémon that did not grow up with the incineroar while it was a torracat will be too nervous to allow it.

Incineroar are fiercely protective of anything they see as their baby, which often applies to young trainers as well as small or unevolved pokémon on their team. They will often growl or rear up on their hind legs if they perceive another human as threatening their trainer, or if they see one of their teammates hurt in battle. It is recommended that incineroar be withdrawn during battles, not used in double battles and kept away from stressful situations.

All stages of the evolutionary line require scratching posts to keep their claws in check. Otherwise they will seek out wood, be it forest logs or furniture, and take care of their needs.

Wild torracat can live in mated pairs, litter groups, groups of multiple mated pairs, mixed groups, or on their own As such,hey can adapt to almost all team dynamics in captivity.

Illness

All stages of the evolutionary line have illnesses similar to most felines.

A torracat exposed to particularly heavy rains or submersion for long periods of time will develop waterlogged hypothermia, the most common illness for all fire-types. A waterlogged torracat will become very inactive, refuse to eat and obsessively groom its own fur to the point of ripping out entire patches and even tearing into the skin. They will not produce flames. Waterlogging is rather easily cured in torracat with the provision of oils under the supervision of a veterinarian. If a torracat becomes waterlogged and there is not a Pokémon Center readily available, withdraw it and keep it in its ball. Drop it off at a veterinarian or Pokémon Center as soon as possible.

Parasites are particularly tricky to deal with in torracat as they will almost never allow a human to groom them. Fortunately, the few parasites that do prey on the species are usually near-harmless. Make sure your torracat has a full checkup by a veterinarian at least once a year.

Any immersion of an incineroar's open flames in water should be assumed to be life-threatening.

Evolution

Litten naturally progress into torracat as they age. This process usually takes roughly two years. The formal demarcation between litten and torracat is the first vocalization with their bell.

Torracat evolve after reproducing with another torracat. The male will begin to eat and hunt more while the female is pregnant and begin the process of evolving, which will be completed by the time the female gives birth. After delivering a litter of four to six kittnes, the female will begin to evolve in turn.

In captivity, all torracat breeding and evolutions are handled by DNR approved breeding facilities. Contact the DNR if interested in evolving a male torracat. Female torracat can be handed over for evolution, but they will only be returned to their trainer after their litten have been adopted out.

Battle

Wild litten and torracat primarily hunt with their claws and save their fire for self-defense, distractions, intimidation and mating displays. They can be trained to use fire more regularly in captivity, although their diet will need to be adjusted to compensate. Torracat are capable of fighting at range with (relatively inaccurate) embers and streams of flame, or up close with their claws and teeth. As such, they should be trained in a variety of strategies and the one picked in battle should be determined by their opponent.

In the wild, torracat hunt through the use of rough terrain and large packs communicating over long distances to set up traps. In captivity this strategy is often unable to be replicated, as only the most experienced of trainers will be able to understand their torracat's vocalizations in any detail and double battles are rare in Alola. It does mean that torracat are quite clever and can pick up on new moves and tactics quickly. This, combined with their reluctance to use fire, makes them less directly powerful than brionne or dartrix, but capable of using more complex maneuvers to compensate.

They are most easily countered by rock-types that can shrug off their claws and aren't seriously hurt by fire. Very accurate or powerful water- or ground-types can also force a torracat into surrender by targeting its bell. Litten are not particularly water averse and have no direct opening to their flame sacs, allowing them to take hits from those attacks more easily.

Incineroar in the wild hunt with powerful flame blasts, bites and paw strikes. This makes them far more direct battlers than torracat. However, like most carnivores, they sometimes have trouble holding back. Incineroar seldom bother to defend themselves if they weren't trained in defensive maneuvers as a litten. Instead they prefer to rush their opponents, rear up to bring their flame belt into play, and start scorching and slashing until one pokémon or the other is knocked out. This means that incineroar can reliably win against anything they can win a close-quarters slugging match against, and they are doomed when they can't. They also struggle against birds and quick stall teams who can keep away from incineroar while slowly chipping away at them. But outside of those two exceptions, incineroar battles tend to be brutal and short.

Incineroar directly competes for a spot with arcanine and pyroar on international competitive circuits. As such, Champion Luna is the only trainer on _The Battler's_ Top 100 list who uses one on their main team.

Acquisition

Children between the ages of ten and twenty can obtain a litten from certified distributors free of charge with a Class I certification. Children who have cleared the grand trial on at least one island and did not receive a litten as a starter can purchase or adopt an additional one. Torracat in licensed shelters can be adopted with a Class II license or higher. Incineroar can be adopted by trainers aged 16 or under with a Class II license. Trainers above the age of 16 require a Class IV license, as they are often unwilling to cooperate with an adult human.

Wild torracat colonies exist within Poni Island National Park. It is forbidden to capture wild litten or torracat without the explicit approval of the National Park Service. Following the introduction of pyroar to Poni Island a fierce territorial dispute has emerged. The pyroar have all but entirely won the conflict through their greater size and social cohesion. Incineroar without a current litter will frequently hunt and kill pyroar in an attempt to reduce the threat to torracat and incineroar.

Wild incineroar will often attack adult humans on sight, or younger humans if they get too close to their litten. Trainers are advised not to enter Poni Island National Park alone without a pokémon capable of reliably defeating a wild incineroar. Never approach a wild litten in the park, as at least one of its parents will always be close by.

All feral torracat encountered outside of Poni Island National Park are the property of the Commonwealth of Alola and, if captured, must be dropped off at a pokémon center within thirty days. Due to abuse of the system, bounties for returned torracat are no longer offered.

Breeding

Torracat breeding with other torracat is handled exclusively by the DNR.

In captivity, torracat will mate with other felines and even some non-canine mammalian fire types, as well as subspecies of natural fire-types that are not themselves fire-types, such as Lanakilan vulpix. This reproduction will not trigger evolution and the babies will seldom be fertile, if reproduction is even possible. Torracat pregnancies typically last four months. They should not be withdrawn into pokéballs once the pregnancy becomes visible, and neither the mother nor her litten should not be withdrawn into their pokeballs until the babies are six months old.

Litten typically abandon their parents at eighteen months of age in the wild. Litten of this age can be gifted to the DNR. Trainers will receive a $1200 tax break per litten handed over.

Subspecies

None known.


	3. Primarina

**Brionne (Popplio, Primarina)**

Overview

Brionne and primarina are mammals. However, they have convergently evolved gills and mucus generation. In practice, they have about as much in common with slowpoke as dewgong. Their needs, husbandry and even battle strengths and weaknesses can seem alien to the beginning trainer. The disadvantages of this are obvious. But, those trainers that manage to raise a thriving brionne will find themselves with the fundamentals needed to tame and care for the oddest of species in the future. And as far as strange species go, they have one of the best support networks in the region in terms of supplies and veterinarian knowledge.

Beyond that very important note, brionne have the least problematic evolution when compared to the lengthy period of absence required for a torracat evolution and the difficulties of caring for a decidueye in the long term. Primarina are mostly famous for their popularity in zoos and circuses worldwide. But they are very competent battlers that are difficult for an unprepared trainer to counter. They also get more friendly and gregarious as they evolve, and primarina tend to take on a motherly role towards their teammates and trainer.

Physiology

Popplio and brionne are classified as pure water types. Primarina is classified as a joint water- and fairy-type. Both rulings are undisputed.

Popplio are dark blue almost everywhere on their body. Their shape is typically pinniped, with two large front flippers used for movement on land and two smaller back flippers used for movement in water. Their muzzle is colored white and ends in a pink orb. There is a pale blue frill around their neck. Popplio use this frill to help regulate their temperature and salinity. They can get oxygen through it in an emergency, but they prefer to breathe with their lungs. The frill is also used for regulating internal water supply and analyzing the properties of the water around them. The orb on popplio's nose is used to sense and produce vibrations to view the world in echolocation. It is believed that this is their primary sense.

Popplio skin is quite thick and rough, aside from the frill. As they evolve, their skin becomes thinner and slimier.

Brionne are lighter in coloration and the tips of their flippers are white. They gain two more frills around their midsection. The most notable change is the development of two antennae on their head. These are used to produce vibrations and help with controlling the water around them.

While brionne mostly look like larger popplio, primarina have quite a few major external and internal differences from popplio. Their body as a whole is thinner and sleeker relative to their size, and their frills (now located on their forehead, the start of their hind flippers, the start of their tail and the area around their front flippers) are proportionally smaller. Their tail is longer and bulkier than a brionne's and dark blue in coloration. The skin on their tail is similar to a popplio's. The rest of their body proper is white. Primarina and older brionne gain a thin layer of blubber under their skin to insulate them on long pelagic journeys.

The biggest difference between brionne and primarina is that the antennae are replaced with thousands of long, fine hairs. These are used to sense and modify vibrations, allowing for much more complex sounds to be created.

The brionne line use sonics and slime to channel their hydrokinesis. More complex sounds allow for more complicated water attacks and more nimble movement when submerged. More slime in an area allows for more water to be manipulated. Primarina have some of the most complex vocal chords of all pokémon and can produce sounds several octaves above and below the range of human hearing. Their frills gain the ability to aid in manipulating sound upon a primarina's final evolution.

Brionne can live up to fifteen years in the wild or thirty in captivity. Primarina can live up to sixty years in both the wild and captivity. Brionne typically grow to 0.8 meters and they weigh less than 25 kilograms. Primarina can reach lengths of two meters and masses of 50 kilograms.

Behavior

Popplio are naturally curious and playful. They will attempt to mimic almost all sounds that they hear and will practice their attacks and singing ability constantly. In the wild they often huddle together with other members of their evolutionary line. They will not do this with humans or any other species. This is for the best (see Illness). Unlike the other stages of their evolutionary line, popplio sleep on land during the night and enjoy playing on beaches during the dusk and dawn. Usually a small group of brionne or the choir's primarina will supervise them during this time.

During the day, wild popplio typically play with each other and forage around the choir's resting place.

Brionne are perhaps even more curious about sounds, but they now possess the proper anatomy to replicate them. In the wild they will frequently beach near human settlements to listen to music and urban sounds. They also frequent bird rookeries to listen to bird calls. In captivity, they are fascinated by sports and dancing. Brionne sleep during the day by hooking themselves to sea grass or rocks at the bottom of water between two and ten meters deep.

Wild primarina spend most of the day resting. At night they teach their songs to the choir's brionne (see Evolution) or beach on land to learn new sounds or forcefully introduce theirs to anyone in range. They are also known to forage for pearls, sea stars or anything they consider to be beautiful. They subsequently adorn their hair with these items. The purpose of this is unclear.

In the wild popplio hunt small birds and insects through ambush tactics. One of their favorite strategies is to sneak up on a flock of small seabirds, make a loud noise to startle them into flight and then attempt to pick off one with a well-aimed burst of water. Their diet is supplemented by shellfish, benthic fish and invertebrates and insects provided by the older members of their choir.

Brionne typically hunt in groups. They will find large schools of small fish and swim around them in a group while emitting very loud cries. Individual brionne will break out of the circle and swim into the school, picking out as many fish as they please.

Primarina hunt by stunning or killing fish. They can also use their hydrokinesis to propel themselves up to 15 meters per second for short distances. One of primarina's songs can kill almost all insects in a thirty meter radius. Primarina will only eat insects when desperate. Insect kills are either done for sport or to feed their young.

Husbandry

The biggest challenge with caring for all stages of the brionne line is meeting their need for stimulation. In the wild popplio play with each other and the older members of their choir. This is hard to replicate in captivity as most humans do not have the patience to play with their popplio for several hours a day every day, and most pokémon's idea of play is too rough for popplio (and especially for brionne). Popplio will need at least six hours a day of enrichment. Brionne require at least four. This can be done by giving the pokémon a toy such as a ball or rattle or just by putting an MP3 player on. Brionne in particular are quite fond of children's television featuring dancing, singing humans.

Brionne are a special challenge because they require plenty of stimulation and are nocturnal. Brionne and primarina trainers are advised to adjust their sleep schedules to at least partially match their partner's.

Technology or toys will inevitably prove necessary as even humans who want to play with their popplio will quickly discover that their pokémon has more energy and stamina than they do. However, it is recommended to spend as much of this time as possible playing with the pokémon yourself or with your team members. Since popplio and brionne's play enhances their battling prowess, this time can be used to work on moves and strategies. Indeed, one of the biggest strengths of the line is that they never need to be cajoled or bribed into practicing.

During the remainder of the day popplio are almost always fine with resting in their pokéballs.

Food designed specifically for brionne is sold in every Pokémon Center in Alola. Trainers are encouraged to allow their pokémon to hunt and forage on their own at least once a month.

The best partners for brionne are musically inclined or otherwise vocally interesting pokémon. Toucannon, crobat, noibat, ditto, zoroark, ninetales, mismagisus, and oricorio all make good teammates for brionne and can save their trainer time and energy in enrichment. It is recommended that trainers who intend to evolve their brionne get some form of musical training as it will be a good bonding tool with the pokémon and a necessity for understanding how to command one in battle (see Battling).

Wild primarina never have any relationships with an equal partner, platonic or otherwise. As such they tend to adopt a maternal attitude towards their trainers. They will frequently embrace their trainer or even fall asleep on them if allowed to. It is recommended to minimize skin contact while they are doing this and allow them a chance to swim shortly after. Primarina require less in the way of enrichment than their pre-evolutions, but they become quite protective of their trainer and will want to spend several hours a day in the same space as them. They also very much enjoy singing to and with their trainer.

All stages of the line are amphibious and brionne and primarina are primarily aquatic in the wild. The water is necessary to keep their frills from drying out. It is important to allow them to soak in seawater whenever possible. Brionne and primarina will need to sleep in the ocean at least once a week for optimal health. It is important to note that tap water drawn in a bathtub can be toxic to all stages of the line and should never be used as a replacement for seawater. Almost all large, inland Pokémon Centers have saltwater pools that can be used as a substitute when necessary.

Primarina are long-lived, intelligent and social. Many will begin to learn human languages, although their pronunciation is often jarring due to the different structure of their vocal chords. As such, they don't learn commands through reinforcement of behaviors and the building of trust so much as through actually reasoning through their trainer's words. This has obvious advantages. It also means that sometimes your pokémon will tell you you're making a bad decision in as many words. Primarina are frequently conversational in multiple pokémon languages and will usually be willing to translate the wishes of other team members. Of course, by the time a trainer has a primarina to do this they will likely have a good idea what their pokémon's behaviors mean.

A final word of caution: primarina frequently steal jewelry and other shiny objects from their trainer to adorn their hair. They will refuse to give these objects back and, if the objects are taken from them, they will scream loudly and incessantly until they are returned. Watch your valuables around primarina.

Illness

The most common illness affecting all stages of the evolutionary line are surface wounds and infections. Their frills (and, to a lesser extent, their skin) are thin, porous, and coated in a vital layer of mucus. This means that attacks that would leave tiny scratches on most pokémon can become gaping wounds on them. Fortunately, they heal somewhat faster than most other pokémon when allowed to submerge in clean seawater. Make sure to watch how rough your pokémon are playing with your brionne and be willing to withdraw them from battle early in melee exchanges.

The next major problem with brionne is that they are very susceptible to dehydration. This is mostly a problem for brionne, as popplio have thicker skin and smaller frills and primarina are capable of rehydrating themselves from the air in sufficiently moist environments. A dehydrated brionne will become sluggish and unwilling to play or eat. Their skin will look and feel dry and brittle. Fortunately, this can be cured by immediately bathing them in seawater. It should be noted that a brionne subjected to prolonged dehydration may appear to recover after a bath only to die shortly thereafter because they cannot regulate their body chemistry effectively with damaged frills.

Finally, brionne skin, and especially brionne frills, are very susceptible to foreign contaminants. This includes the oils on mammal's skin. A brionne with damaged frills will typically begin to cry out in pain or pull away from direct contact. They will attempt to climb out of water with contaminants, including fluoride and chlorine. If a primarina initiates skin-to-skin contact with their trainer, allow them to soak soon afterwards to wash out contaminants and restore the slime. Find out if the primarina is willing to have a sheet or other barrier between her and her trainer.

If any symptoms do not go away following immersion in seawater for six hours, consult a veterinarian.

Evolution

Healthy popplio naturally progress to brionne over the course of roughly three years, although constant exposure to enrichments, clean water, battle, and food can accelerate the process. The development of the third frill is the formal demarcation point between popplio and brionne.

All popplio and brionne are male. All primarina are female. Every choir has exactly one primarina. When there is no primarina, the dominant brionne begins to evolve and change sex in the process. They then form a reverse harem with the brionne in the choir. A solitary brionne will never evolve. As such, it is necessary to either train multiple brionne, which may be advisable due to their social needs, or to loan your brionne to a primarina collective.

In primarina collectives, captive brionne on loan from other breeding programs or trainers, as well as injured wild brionne that could not be returned to the wild, are held inside a large enclosure. When a primarina evolves, they are removed. This does not stress the brionne as primarina frequently depart from their choirs in the wild and outside brionne frequently join them (see Breeding).

Primarina songs are more inherited than improvised. In order to develop properly, a primarina must spend time with either another primarina after evolving or a wild-raised primarina before evolving. The injured wild brionne inside of breeding collectives help teach their captive counterparts the songs they learned from wild primarina.

Licensed primarina collectives are run by the Commonwealth of Alola through the Hau'oli Aquarium, Heahea Conservatory and Malie Zoo. Privately owned collectives can be found in Brooklet Shire, Seafolk Village, Heahea City and West Beach City.

Wild primarina are often willing to teach songs to their captive counterparts. See Acquisition for the locations where they are most commonly found in Alola.

Battle

Popplio have a reputation as glass cannons. They can take far fewer hits than the other traditional Alolan starters but have relatively powerful projectile attacks and are clever enough to learn a variety of moves rather quickly. Brionne, with their thinner skin but more powerful voices, are even more typical glass cannons.

It is wrong to apply that term to primarina. They are not projectile glass cannons who either knock out their opponents before they can cross the field or get knocked out in turn. Instead, they are powerful arena shapers when well trained and played. While they still might get taken out by one good cut or a few blunt force attacks, they use their control of the battlefield to prevent most grounded physical attackers from ever reaching them.

Primarina use their slime and hydrokinesis to condense water from the air and fill durable slime bubbles with it. They will then either use these bubbles as projectiles, trapping moves or, a means of riding around the arena. This serves both as a way for them to move quickly on land and to coat the arena in a thin layer of slime that allows for more control of the water. They will then use the slime and water coating the battlefield to lock down their opponent's movements, all the while bombarding them with sonic moves, moonblasts, hydro pumps and other powerful ranged attacks.

If primarina have a drawback, it is that their trainers can almost never understand exactly how their song works. They have limitations that can sometimes seem pointless but are not easily fixed without overhauling the entire song, something that would take multiple lifetimes for them to do completely. Because primarina songs are mostly inherited, this allows opponents to come up with primarina counter-strategies that work against almost all members of the species.

Birds durable enough to take a ranged hit or two and fast enough to outpace a moving primarina can be reliable counters. Toucannon often find it difficult to fly between their beak's weight and rapidly condensing water in the air, but their bullet seeds and rock blasts are often able to knock out a primarina in one or two volleys. Vikavolt, hodad, and magnezone are reliable counters for primarina.

Despite this, primarina have always had a niche in competitive battling. So long as they aren't too popular in a given metagame, few trainers will have bothered to come up with a counter strategy. And it is rather difficult to stop a powerful, mobile arena controller without having a plan in place at the start. This is especially true as some primarina have learned how to emit sounds that disrupt complex thoughts in humans without being readily detectable. Because primarina trainers are seldom much use in the heat of battle, this almost always works to their advantage.

The discovery of this ability has led to the ban of primarina from the Pan-African and European Union leagues. The primary leagues in China, Australia and Japan allow them provided that the exact frequency they use against humans is monitored during the battle. The Global Battling Federation and United States Competitive Pokémon Association currently allow primarina with no restrictions.

Acquisition

Children between the ages of ten and twenty can obtain a popplio as a starter free of charge with a Class I certification. Children who have cleared the grand trial on at least one island and did not receive a popplio as a starter can purchase or adopt an additional one. Brionne or primarina in licensed shelters can be adopted with a Class II license or higher.

Wild brionne are frequently found at Exeggutor Island, Kala'e Bay, Hano Beach, or the coastline of Poni Island National Park. It is illegal to capture a wild specimen at any stage of the evolutionary line without the approval of the Department of Natural Resources. However, these colonies will happily play with and teach songs to captive popplio or brionne. Wild primarina seldom interact with each other. However, if a captive and a wild primarina are allowed to bond for several days the wild one will often agree to teach her songs to the captive primarina.

Breeding

Primarina tend to mate once a year, usually in mid-September. They will select one to three brionne to mate with based on their genetic diversity, proficiency in learning songs, and the responsibilities they have taken over popplio rearing. The brionne chose to father the pups hold no special role in parenting and do not appear to gain any status over other brionne.

After a five month pregnancy, primarina give birth to roughly six pups. These popplio are typically only fifteen to twenty centimeters long and are under constant watch by the primarina and brionne of the choir until they reach roughly six months of age, at which point they are roughly forty centimeters long. At this point popplio are given more leeway to play and explore, albeit with a brionne or primarina always keeping a watchful eye on them. Even so, many die from illness and predation.

If conditions are not ideal to continue raising popplio, a primarina will take a few brionne and swim elsewhere to reproduce and set up a new choir. The dominant brionne that remains will evolve. Brionne frequently leave their choirs to join new ones. The impetus for this is unclear, but it serves the purpose of diversifying the gene pools of any given choir.

Captive breeding is best left to the professionals at primarina collectives.

Subspecies

There are three major subspecies of primarina, with disputed reports of a fourth. The primarina given out as a starter in the Alola region is the pelagic primarina.

Mangrove primarina and brionne are roughly half the size of their reef and pelagic counterparts. They are mottled green and brown and tend to hunt insects, fish and small birds and mammals through the use of sonic attacks, slime webs and traps they build in the mud. They rest in seagrasses off shore during the day and lie waiting in ambush between the roots of mangrove trees at night. They tend to have the least slimy skin and smallest frills of the primarina subspecies. Mangrove primarina are officially classified as water and ground types.

Abyssal primarina are the least studied of the confirmed primarina subspecies. They live at depths between one and three kilometers in the ocean and are unable to survive on land. Abyssal brionne are roughly three meters long. The largest abyssal primarina ever recorded was seven meters long from nose to tail. Abyssal brionne have far larger and more complex frills. They use slight control of water currents to create large nets of gelatinous material to create traps for plankton and other microorganisms. They then absorb the nets into their body, process the food and excrete the net material to be refashioned and used again. No abyssal brionne has been held in captivity for more than seven hours. If abyssal brionne have a popplio stage, they have never been observed.

There are reports of a fourth subspecies of brionne, tentatively referred to as the hadal brionne. The physical evidence for their existence amounts to a single bloated and mangled corpse that washed up on the shores of Peru in 1983. There is also an account from a manned expedition to the Galapagos Triple Junction where something resembling a twenty-plus meter long abyssal primarina disrupted the submarine's equipment and let out a low, eerie moan as it passed by. It is speculated that hadal primarina may have led to the abrupt disappearance of several submarines and autonomous exploration vehicles in the past.


	4. Toucannon

**Toucannon (Pikipek, Trumbeak)**

Overview

After years of studying the finches of the Galapagos and refining his theory of macroevolution, Charles Darwin took one look at an Alolan toucannon and decided his theory didn't apply to Pokémon. Lydia Aholo, heir to the Alolan monarchy until the overthrow of the government, used the very same pokémon in her argument that macroevolution did apply to pokémon.

What Darwin found most jarring about Alolan toucannon is the sheer size of their beak. Despite being hollow and lighter than it appears, most of the bird's anatomy is dedicated to supporting it. And, unlike the beaks of other birds, it does not appear particularly well adapted to toucannon's food source. However, dissection of toucannon show that the structure of their beak is remarkably similar to toucannon from the Americas. It is unclear when or how a bird incapable of flying more than a kilometer or two at a time crossed thousands of kilometers of open ocean, but it happened and the long period of isolation that followed led to the most unique of the toucannon subspecies.

Princess Lydia's work on toucannon beaks and feather structure is well documented at an exhibit in the Royal Aviary in Castleton. The descendents of the princess' toucannon also live there.

Toucannon is often overlooked among serious trainers in Alola in favor of larger or more agile birds such as decidueye, braviary, mandibuzz or talonflame. However, it has its advantages. Perhaps its most serious advantage for trainers who don't expect to remain in competitive pokémon battling after the completion of their island challenge is that it starts out as a relatively powerful pokémon, is easy to care for at all stages of its evolutionary line and stays competitive up to the power levels seen at the end of the island challenge. Unlike decidueye, it can be evolved without requiring its trainer to actively battle indefinitely.

Physiology

All stages of the toucannon line are recognized as flying-types, even though toucannon is not capable of flying long distances (trumbeak are capable of flying moderate distances of roughly five kilometers, which is still less than most near-adult flying-types). They all hold a placeholder normal-typing per Department of Agriculture standards on birds without compelling evidence for any secondary typing. There is some dispute as to whether or not Alolan toucannon should quality for a fire or even electric typing, but as their power source is strictly internal and only used to power other attacks without a clear elemental theme, the Department of Agriculture has declined to reconsider their ruling.

Pikipek are counter-shaded birds with white feathers on their stomach and black feathers on their back. They have a red crest running from their bill to the back of their head. Their bill is narrow and conical with grey and black patches.

Trumbeak lose the red stripe on their head in favor of a large tuft of black feathers. They do gain a red ring of feathers around their neck. Their beaks begin to properly segment and gain external rings of bright colors.

Toucannon only have white feathers on their chest. Their crest disappears entirely and they gain patches of yellow feathers on their cheeks. The red feathers on their body shift from their neck to the area right above their tail. Toucannon have thicker and longer talons than trumbeak. Their beaks are also far larger and bulkier, growing from narrow cones to something resembling a proper horn. Trumbeak grow up to 120 centimeters tall and can weigh up to thirty pounds. Their beaks alone can weigh up to eight kilograms and reach seventy centimeters in length.

Toucannon's beak is incredibly intricate. It is capable of storing seeds and pebbles for long periods of time and chemically altering wood. It also contains several chambers filled with steam. These allow for toucannon to spit out small objects at speeds of up to three hundred meters per second. The resulting hit can stun, kill or badly injure most pokémon, depending upon their size and durability. Toucannon can accurately hit multiple targets with pinpoint accuracy up to ten meters away. Due to the weight of their beak, toucannon are only capable of flight for short distances.

Toucannon can live up to sixty years in the wild and fifty years in captivity.

Behavior

In the wild, pikipek are insectivore that supplement their diet with fruit. They are known to practice spitting or dropping seeds upon opponents. Their primary feeding tactic is to carve small holes into wood to find and remove insects. It is believed that they possess some sort of ability to determine the location of bugs from the sound the impact of their beak makes. All members of the evolutionary line have been known to burrow into trees for sport or to pass the time.

Trumbeak are known to incessantly vocalize, even during the wee hours of the night when they should be sleeping. They are prone to repeating any sound they hear to the greatest extent their beak an manage. Trumbeak that live near brionne choirs are known to get into hours long singing contests with their amphibian neighbors. Contrary to popular belief, trumbeak barely use their beak for these sounds. Instead, they originate in their chest. The reason trumbeak vocalize far more than pikipek is likely attributed to the relative dearth of predators that hunt the former compared to the latter. Trumbeak primarily live on a diet of insects, but fruit can comprise up to forty percent of their diet.

Toucannon flock to forests with the oldest of trees. They then dig intricate tunnels and caverns into the trees. They can even build sealed passageways and multiple rooms through their ability to turn wood shavings into a hard resin with their beak. Toucannon spend most of their day looking for fruit and most of their nights sleeping in their nest. When they find fruit that is too high to reach from the ground, they will attempt to shoot down the branch it is on. If this fails they will settle for snapping the tree through repeated bites. Toucannon are neither particularly curious nor playful in either the wild or captivity.

Husbandry

Toucannon are rather easy to care for at all stages of the evolutionary line. They don't seem to mind pokéballs so long as they are properly fed. Bonding with them usually entails giving them adequate food for long enough that they will accept partnership with you. Having musical talent and being willing to sing to them, especially as trumbeak, also helps.

Pikipek and trumbeak can be fed insect mix sold in all Pokémon Centers. Berries, live crickets and worms serve as good treats and rewards. Trumbeak will require fresh fruit to make up at least 30% of their diet. Toucannon will only eat fruit, although some have displayed a fondness towards brightly colored cereals. Fruit provided to them must be fresh, as no stage of the evolutionary line drinks water. They get their moisture from their food.

It is recommended that all stages of the evolutionary line be allowed to forage for at least some of their diet. The reasons for this are two-fold. The first is that it's a cost saving measure and cuts down on the amount of heavy food that needs to be carried around on trails. The second is that pikipek and trumbeak will obsessively peck at all wood they find. They can be trained to not peck some types of wood through negative reinforcement (loud noises for pikipek, squirt bottles for trumbeak). However, they will resume pecking that wood again unless given a suitable outlet. Trees in parks or forests can provide this to them.

Toucannon will want a nest if they are held in the same area for more than three days. They will attempt to build one unless given an enclosed space big enough to hold at least two toucannon. Ideally the nest will have a trap door to block light but allow for entry. These nests can be purchased at most pokémon goods stores, but they are neither cheap nor easy to carry. Some Pokémon Centers will have toucannon boxes available for rent. If you are staying in one place for an extended period of time on a journey and cannot use a Pokémon Center's box, it may be cheaper to rent storage unit, line blankets on the floor and provide adequate food. The door should be left unlocked and the toucannon should be taught how to open and close it. They can be taught to use keys if necessary. Toucannon will not defecate inside of their nest.

Toucannon can be quite clever. They just prefer not to use their higher thinking to solve problems.

While toucannon don't defecate as much as dartrix, they still produce waste that will need to be cleaned up. Pikipek and trumbeak can be house trained, to a degree, through negative and positive reinforcement. Toucannon will defecate wherever they want, whenever they want. In nature this helps spread seeds around. This could be attributed to simple natural instinct, but they have a habit of looking their trainer dead in the eyes and huffing while they do it, and then maintaining eye contact until it is cleaned up. It is suspected that they do this to assert autonomy and/or dominance.

Toucannon that have been held in captivity for up to a decade have successfully reintegrated into the wild. If for whatever reason you don't want to keep a toucannon at the end of your journey, they can be dropped off at any place their stage of the evolutionary line inhabits (see Acquisition).

Illness

Toucannon illnesses typically have symptoms of diarrhea, labored breathing, sudden loss of feathers or a sudden loss of interest in food. Should these symptoms arise, immediately withdraw the toucannon into its pokéball and take it to a veterinarian as soon as possible. Some diseases can be fatal within three days. While the frequency and severity of illness declines as a toucannon ages, they can still result in permanent injury or death if left untreated.

Evolution

Pikipek naturally mature into toucannon over the course of three to four years. The formal demarcation line between pikipek and trumbeak is the disappearance of all red feathers on top of the head. The demarcation between trumbeak and toucannon is the appearance of yellow feathers on the cheeks.

Battle

Pikipek's greatest strength in battle is their relatively high speed and maneuverability for a young and easily trained pokémon in Alola. Their pecks are far more powerful than they seem and pikipek should be trained to pull their punches in battles against powerful opponents before they are allowed to fight pokémon of their own strength. Even holding back, a pikipek can easily stay out of reach of melee attacks before dropping in to deliver a barrage of pecks fast and powerful enough to knock out most young pokémon in a few rounds. However, it takes a pikipek a moment to regain altitude and they will be vulnerable during this phase of the battle.

Trumbeak are prone to showing off through taunts, mid-battle preening and overly elaborate aerial maneuvers. Trainers are encouraged to let them do this in all but the most serious of battles, as it has been shown to boost their mood. Trumbeak rely on a mix of diving peck attacks and aerial barrages of seeds. The aim and force of these shots is far less powerful than in an adult toucannon, and at this stage much effort should be focused on getting them to hold back.

In the wild, adult Toucannon prefer to defend themselves by firing small rocks until the threat stops moving or goes away. In captivity, this is often a felony. All but the most experienced of trainers will struggle to keep a toucannon acquired from the wild in its final evolutionary state from simply killing any opponent it can. With proper training in restraint, toucannon can be one of the fiercest competitive pokémon available in Alola. Their niche is primarily in shutting down hyper-offensive teams that often lack a pokémon that can take the equivalent of ten low-caliber bullets a second. Toucannon are also capable of taking quite a few hits and using their beak to burn or batter anything that comes too close.

The pokémon that can shrug off toucannon's attacks usually counter it. In these situations, high-level trainers typically rely on toucannon to support their team through defog, tailwind and u-turn.

Acquisition

Pikipek can be captured or purchased with a Class I license. They can be found by waiting in almost any public park or forest in Alola for five minutes.

Trumbeak are rarer due to the sheer number of predators that pikipek have (vikavolt, rattata, yungoos, ariados, some canines, most felines, and a handful of other birds). They can still be found over almost all of Alola. They can be captured or purchased with either a Class II license or a Class I license and completion of at least one island's Grand Trial.

Due to the relative rarity and longevity of wild toucannon, as well as their difficulty to tame, wild toucannon have a very limited season, strict annual quotas and require a Class IV license to capture. TOnly a Class II license is required to purchase a trained toucannon.

No healthy specimen at any stage of the evolutionary line may be adopted. Licensed shelters will simply release most toucannon to free up space for rarer pokémon, or those that don't fare well upon reintroduction. Adoption of injured toucannon is handled on a case-by-case basis.

Breeding

Toucannon mate for life. At the start of spring, a female toucannon enters her nest and lays her eggs. The male seals her inside using a resin made in his beak. They drill a small hole in the barrier. The male returns to the nest every day and regurgitates food in for his mate and young. If the male fails to return for two days, the female will blast open the wall of the nest and abandon her young. Should the male continue to return, the female will stay inside of her nest for five months before emerging with her young. The parents stay with their pikipek for an additional two months before abandoning them.

Subspecies

There are several subspecies of toucannon in the Americas. However, the toucannon there tend to have only slightly larger beaks than trumbeak, less vibrant colors and larger, more powerful wings. They resemble fearow, their closest genetic relative, more than toucannon. American toucannon are also usually referred to as arboreabeaks. These subspecies have varied beaks and diets, but all of them share a basic morphology, typing and defense strategy. Arboreabeak can release projectile seeds, but they have nowhere near the accuracy and power of toucannon. As such, they rely mostly on their beaks for self-defense. They tend to be more prolific breeders and have shorter lifespans than toucannon.

Most subspecies of arboreabeak can produce viable offspring with toucannon. However, all of these subspecies have at least a 20% chance of producing offspring that are not reproductively viable. There is a debate as to whether or not arboreabeak and toucannon should be classified as different species altogether.


	5. Gumshoos

**Gumshoos (Yungoos)**

Overview

Gumshoos has been one of the most useful and used pokémon in captivity for millennia. Hardy, fierce and loyal, they have been the scouts and sentinels of settlers and soldiers since at least the Old Kingdom of Egypt. Gumshoos grow quickly, are intelligent and patient enough to easily train, and are fierce enough to give most apex predators pause.

Previous additions of this text have whole-heartedly recommended gumshoos to trainers going on their island challenge. This is no longer the case.

Despite being confined to the edges of the United States and Europe (see Subspecies), plains gumshoos have become the unofficial symbol of white supremacist organizations. This is due to the supposed resemblance between the gumshoos' crest and a certain politician's hair. Given the demographic composition and politics of Alola, trainers (especially white ones) using a gumshoos may experience social stigma and difficulty reintegrating after the completion of the island challenge.

Physiology

All stages of plains gumshoos are recognized as pure normal-types. Despite "memes" on some portions of the internet, they are not dark-types.

Yungoos are long, slim quadrupeds with light brown fur on their sides and yellow fur running in stripes down the length of their back and belly. They have two rows of proportionally large teeth. While they can close their mouth completely, they seldom do so. Their stomach is proportionally very large.

Gumshoos change their appearance rather little as they grow. The most obvious change is the growth of a crest on top of their head and a small beard at the end of their chin. Their mouth and head are proportionally smaller than yungoos. The end of their brown fur before the start of their tail also begins to stick up in tufts. They can reach a height of up to 0.7 meters and a mass of around 15 kilograms.

Most of what makes a gumshoos remarkable is beneath their fur. They have very thick skin and musculature around their throat, head and vital organs. Their bones are some of the most durable among mammalian pokémon and their claws, while small, are sharp enough to pierce the hide of most species. Gumshoos have day vision nearly five times greater than the average humans, and their sense of smell is at least ten times stronger than ours. However, gumshoos are effectively blind at night and tend to seek shelter and sleep. The species strictly diurnal and over thousands of years of attempts, captive plains gumshoos have remained that way.

Gumshoos can live up to twenty years in captivity and ten in the wild.

Behavior

Prior to recent events, gumshoos were most famous for their stakeouts. A gumshoos can stand near motionless for up to twelve hours at a time. They frequently use their sense of smell to detect an area their prey frequent and then stand there until something crosses their path, at which point they abruptly break composure and charge. Captive gumshoos can be trained to merely sniff out and point at a prey animal, although they usually can't help but slowly creep up on their prey.

It is a common misconception that this behavior is only for hunting. A male gumshoos with children or a pregnant mate will frequently stake out an area near their den. They use their mostly vestigial control over static electricity to puff up their fur when defending something, be it their trainer or family.

Yungoos mostly hunt by roaming large areas in search of something to eat. They will frequently become fixated on killing the first moving thing that crosses their line of sight, even if it is much larger than they are. This behavior is a form of play, as a hungry yungoos will ignore anything they obviously cannot bring down. Yungoos are primarily scavengers who supplement their diet with fruit in practice, although they will gladly hunt and kill anything small and slow enough for them to bring down.

Gumshoos, given their greater size, speed and claws, are almost exclusively carnivores. Their prey includes most animals and pokémon smaller than them and some larger than they are. Outside of Alola, gumshoos have been documented approaching recent kills and either scaring off the other predator or killing and eating both predator and prey at once.

Gumshoos are tenacious fighters with a deceptively sturdy build, sharp claws and multiple rows of teeth. The only species in Alola that prey upon gumshoos are bored or desperate apex predators. In their original habitat, the young of some large predator species have developed coats similar to that of a gumshoos.

Gumshoos hunt alone but rest and socialize with squadrons of six to ten gumshoos and their young. Past scholarship has suggested that these groups have an "alpha male," although recent research has suggested that this is false. Gumshoos squadrons are quite egalitarian and intra-group fights appear to be more for play than establishing dominance.

Husbandry

Yungoos and gumshoos will only voluntarily stay with and take orders from humans they view as at least an equal. Raising a yungoos from a very young age can establish this relationship. Otherwise, having several pokémon with power at least equal to that of the gumshoos will usually satisfy this requirement. If a trainer begins to lose too frequently, however, gumshoos may become uncooperative. For some species, a trainer fighting and defeating the pokémon in single combat without the aid of their pokémon is the best way to establish dominance. This is not the case for the gumshoos line. A yungoos will easily evade kicks and punches, give the human several nasty cuts for their trouble, and then run away. A gumshoos will view the situation as either a predation attempt or an opportunity for hunting.

Yungoos will require at least ten percent of their body weight in food per day. They will eat nearly anything, but they prefer meat. Gumshoos will only eat meat and frequently leave to hunt on their own if they deem the food provided to them to be insufficiently fresh. A fully grown gumshoos requires roughly 600 grams of meat a day. This was previously the largest drawback of raising a gumshoos.

All stages of the evolutionary line will require occasional access to trees or a scratching post, although they can be trained quickly through spray bottles or loud sounds not to scratch furniture.

Gumshoos can be trained to use litter boxes. As a word of caution, yungoos held in fixed environments prefer to seek shelter in tight, enclosed spaces or at the highest point available. The former preference means that they will often spend large amounts of time inside their litter box if allowed to do so. Bathing a yungoos to get rid of the stench is a task that requires patience and gloves designed for pokémon handling.

Gumshoos can be trained to tolerate pokéball use during the day, although they will lose respect for their trainer if they believe it is being used too often. The don't seem to notice if they are withdrawn between sundown and sunrise.

A gumshoos with sufficient trust in their trainer will often approach them and begin to cuddle. At night they will prefer to sleep like this. The behavior is safe and natural. Never initiate physical affection with a gumshoos, however much they like you.

Gumshoos will groom themselves. Yungoos will allow larger or more adult pokémon to groom them. If this cannot be arranged, a trainer equipped with the aforementioned gloves can brush and wash them once a week, or as needed.

Illness

The most common health problems gumshoos experience in captivity are related to their weight. If a yungoos appears to be putting on weight but not height or a gumshoos is putting on weight, the food provided to them should be cut back. If they appear to be getting unhealthily thin or they vocally demand food outside of their usual feeding time, they should be provided with more food.

Gumshoos should receive the rabies vaccines within two weeks of capture or two months of birth.

Evolution

Wild yungoos naturally mature over the course of two to three years, depending upon their diet and the amount of combat they receive. Captive specimens have been observed reaching maturity roughly a year after birth. The formal demarcation line between yungoos and gumshoos is reaching 0.6 meters when fully extended.

Battle

All subspecies of gumshoos have held a niche in competitive battling since the days where humans fought along with spears and shields. The plains gumshoos in particular is known for being easy to train, tenacious and surprisingly hard to take down. Gumshoos are neither fast nor powerful enough to keep up with the behemoths, tricksters or apex predators that make up the upper echelons of competitive battling, but they are tenacious and tough enough to wound almost all melee opponents before going down. This gives them a role as a disruptor, ignoring barriers or tricks for long enough to begin viciously tearing into anything trying to stat boost, set up barriers or manipulate the field.

The Royal gumshoos (see Subspecies) has a well-established role in competitive battling as a "suicide lead" where they set up barriers protecting their team, deal some damage and then go down.

Plains gumshoos fight primarily through melee scratches and bites. This leaves them vulnerable to agile snipers like jolteon, hard walls like some steel types, and fliers with ranged attacks such as toucannon and vikavolt. Much stronger melee attackers like machamp and hariyama can also take them out quickly before a gumshoos can do much damage. Gumshoos are still quite capable of trading blows with the likes of pyroar or flygon due to their natural durability and scrappiness. All but the fastest and strongest of fragile ranged pokémon will also usually fall to a mature and trained gumshoos, as they can weather attacks as they cross the field and then end the fight up close.

Gumshoos should not be allowed to take particularly powerful blows as they will not surrender and can, in fact, be hurt or killed in battle.

Acquisition

Yungoos can be captured, adopted or purchased with a Class I license. They are most commonly found at the edges of urban settlements, in open fields or in sparse forests.

Gumshoos are somewhat rarer due to yungoos' need for very large amounts of food as well as their tendency to pick inadvisable fights. Gumshoos can be found in many of the same places as yungoos in the wild, although they prefer to stay further away from humans than their juvenile counterparts. They can be captured, adopted or purchased with either a Class II license or a Class I license and completion of at least one island's Grand Trial.

Yungoos and gumshoos were formerly common pets and pest catchers in Alola. This has changed somewhat abruptly, leaving many available for adoption from shelters throughout the commonwealth. Housebroken gumshoos or yungoos may be purchased relatively cheaply from breeders on Melemele, Akala and Ula'Ula.

Breeding

Wild gumshoos mate within their squadron. One or two pairs will breed a year, although there is no particular season in which this usually occurs. Pregnancy lasts roughly ten weeks. Yungoos litters typically contain four to six cubs. During the latter half of pregnancy the females will seek shelter inside of a cubbing den. This can be a natural cave, an abandoned toucannon nest or a small burrow they dig themselves. The mother will stay in the den with her cubs for roughly two months after birth. The other members of the squadron provide her with food during this time. Yungoos usually stay with their squadron until evolution and then set off on their own to find another group.

In captivity, a female gumshoos will begin showing signs of bloating and sluggishness as her pregnancy progresses. Attempts to cut back her food to avoid overeating will be met with angry hisses and displays of aggression until more food is provided. After these symptoms manifest, a secluded area with multiple chambers (one with a litter box, one without) should be provided. The female will not mind the trainer briefly sticking their arms in to change litter or provide food, but no attempt should be made to intrude into the nest without a readily apparent purpose.

Yungoos should not be used in battle or taken away from their mother until at least four weeks after they live outside of the cubbing den full time.

Subspecies

All other subspecies of gumshoos are descended from the alpine gumshoos. These gumshoos are native to the Ethiopian plateau, the Alps, and the Pyrenees mountains. They closely resemble the plains gumshoos, but only grow up to 0.5 meters in length. The brown portions of the plains gumshoos' coat are marbled grey and white, and the yellow stripes on their fur tend to stick up in random clumps or spikes. Alpine gumshoos are ambush predators that use powerful electric shocks to fell birds or terrestrial pokémon that wander into their line of sight. They are the only subspecies that has powerful enough electric capabilities to warrant an electric typing.

The plains gumshoos was the first to be tamed. They originally lived in the grasslands of Southern and Eastern Africa, with populations introduced to Egypt and Mesopotamia around 2500 BCE. Roughly one thousand years later, the Phoenicians spread them around the Mediterranean. The Iberians, for their part, introduced them to the Pampas, Mexico and California during the Age of Discovery. They were introduced to Alola in 1922 to deal with an outbreak of rattata.

The Indian gumshoos were originally native to the the Indian subcontinent. They reach a maximum length of 0.4 meters. They have scarlet side fur and very bright yellow stripes. Indian gumshoos seek out venomous snakes and poison-types to consume. Their bodies are capable of not only neutralizing but breaking down and digesting most forms of venom and poison. Some of these compounds are retained inside of their bodies to make them highly toxic to eat. As such, they have less durable builds than other subspecies. They hunt their prey through a combination of ambush tactics and persistence hunting, where lines of gumshoos will slowly follow fleeing prey until it gives up out of exhaustion, at which point the gumshoos use their fangs and claws to finish it off.

The boreal gumshoos is the largest subspecies, with males averaging 1.1 meters in length. Females tend to only grow up to 0.8 meters. This subspecies has darker brown fur on its side, and light brown fur on its belly and back. They are known for the black marks on their face that resemble domino masks. Their apparent coloration may vary as boreal gumshoos frequently have lichens or moss growing on their fur. The lichens appear to be capable of plant-based attacks, toxic spore release and rapid regrowth. There is some debate as to whether or not they should qualify as separate pokémon species altogether.

Boreal gumshoos generally hunt by following the scent trails of other predators, finding their kills, and then either waiting for the predator to move on or scaring the predators off. Boreal gumshoos have longer claws than their plains counterparts which they use for defense, offense and climbing trees. They have relatively smaller teeth, on balance. They hibernate and reproduce during winter months, emerging in the spring with their cubs in tow.

Royal gumshoos were originally a domesticated breed from Galar produced through crossbreeding of imported Scandanavian telemmings and boreal gumshoos. The subspecies is known for its black coloring with star and moon shaped white markings on its chest. It is the only subspecies to not have a prominent back stripe. Royal gumshoos are telekinetic at short ranges. They use this ability to dampen incoming blows and increase their own apparent strength. Like the alpine gumshoos, they hunt primarily through projectile attacks. In their case, royal gumshoos are known to pick up large stones and use their boosted strength to fling them at unsuspecting prey. Escaped or released royal gumshoos have formed wild populations in the Ohio river basin, Ontario, Quebec, and Galar. Royal gumshoos do not properly hibernate, but they are known to sleep up to 18 hours a day during the winter.


	6. Raticate

**Raticate (Rattata)**

Overview

Even factoring in subspecies, there are very few terrestrial pokémon that can truly be said to have a worldwide range. Raticate is one of them, appearing in one form or another in almost every corner of every landmass except for Antarctica and a few tiny, uninhabited, or remote islands. This is due in large part to the sheer versatility of the species and its capability of eating almost anything. The rest is largely due to the fecundity and short lifespan of the species that enables them to undergo macroevolution at a rate only matched by a handful of insect and mechanical pokémon. When combined with the adaptability of normal-types and the hardiness of mammals, the stage was set for raticate to become the most successful terrestrial pokémon. Currently the species has over thirty documented subspecies and they fill every ecological role from herbivore to decomposer to scavenger to apex predator.

Physiology

All stages of the alolan raticate (henceforth 'raticate,' unless another subspecies is specified) are classified as joint normal- and dark-types by the Department of Agriculture.

Rattata are small quadrupeds. Their fur is counter-shaded with cream fur on the bottom and black fur on their back. Tufts of black fur adorn their prominent ears. Their incisors are very large and protrude from their mouth even when it is closed. Rattata have a prehensile tail that is up to half their body length long. This tail is not particularly strong and is mainly used for balance.

While rattata have a fairly slight build, raticate are often nearly as wide as they are long. Their tail loses its fur, their hindlegs become proportionally larger and stronger while their front legs become proportionally smaller. The fur on their belly darkens to a mottled brown color. They gain large, puffy cheeks with cream colored fur on them. Female raticate grow to a length of 0.7 meters excluding their tail, and 1 meter including it. They can weigh up to 40 kilograms, but typically only weigh about 30. Males usually only grow to about half a meter long excluding their tail.

Rattata are primarily quadrupeds that sometimes stand on two legs to scout out their surroundings. Raticate, when they move at all, tend to waddle on their hind legs. This keeps their teeth in play during fights and makes them appear larger than they really are. Raticate and rattata primarily defend themselves with their teeth, and a fully grown raticate can bite with up to 8,000 Newtons of force. Most of the average raticate's mass is composed of fat reserves and their claws are neither particularly long or sharp. This leaves them few weapons aside from their teeth in a fight.

Raticate navigate primarily through their keen sense of smell. Their night vision is also considerably stronger than a human's, although their day vision is not nearly as powerful. Despite their large ears, raticate are nearly deaf. The leading theory at this time is that their atrophied hearing helps avoid attacks from noivern and crobat they compete for nest space with. The ears are either vestigial or help with heat regulation. The alolan raticate's sense of taste is one of the strongest observed in nature. While technically omnivorous in the wild, they will only eat very fresh meat from a handful of species. In captivity, they have shown a willingness to eat most meat that is fresh, high quality and well prepared. They can subsist on vegetation alone provided that their protein needs are met by beans, nuts, or some berries.

Most wild rattata die before their second birthday without becoming fully grown. Raticate in captivity can live up to six years. The lifespan of wild raticate is unknown.

Behavior

Raticate are nocturnal creatures, and rattata leave their nest to scour the earth for any food they can find at night. Their habit of gnawing through doors to pilfer pantries is well documented. As daybreak approaches, the rattata all retreat back to their home. Fully grown raticate only leave their nest to defend their territory. Most groups have a dominant female raticate and at least one male breeding partner. The queen and her consorts live with several dozen rattata, most (but not all) of whom are their offspring. It is not known where the remaining, unrelated rattata come from. The colony either digs their own tunnel network to live in or, when available, take to living in existing caves or burrows.

Uncovered raticate nests, along with circumstantial evidence, suggests that most of the food the rattata acquire is given to the raticate of the nest. It is believed that the raticate take more than they need, or even more than they can eat, in order to keep the rattata in a state of starvation. This limits the number of rattata that reach their adult state and can compete for sexual partners, territory and food.

Whenever food is relatively sparse or the raticate population grows too high (which, given their fecundity, happens quite often), raticate nests are known to go to war. These fights are apparently unplanned and simply occur when two rattata find the same piece of food at roughly the same time. The loser of their squabble will call reinforcements. As losses mount and increasing number of reinforcements are called, eventually the raticate on both sides will leave their nests and join the fray. The fight ends when the queen in either nest is killed, one side's losses are great enough that their queen calls a retreat, or the sun rises and gumshoos begin to wake up. In the latter case, the fight will usually resume at the same place roughly ninety minutes after sundown. If the queen is killed, all of her consorts and most of the rattata in her colony and slaughtered as well, with the remainder joining the victorious nest.

When forced out of their range due to a territory dispute or a lack of food, raticate will typically abandon the rattata in their nest and swim to another island to start again. Their fat reserves make them quite buoyant and they use their tails to propel themselves through the water.

Husbandry

Due to the relative abundance of food in their habitat, the Alolan raticate has become accustomed to eating large quantities of very high quality food. Both stages of the evolutionary line require roughly 30% of their weight in food each week. They will become upset if they receive less than that and will frequently seek out food to eat on their own. If a raticate believes itself to be deprived for more than one month, it will frequently stop obeying its trainers commands or run away. Additionally, raticate will frequently reject food they deem to be insufficiently fresh or tasty. It is recommended that trainers bring their raticate (provided it is well trained) with them when shopping so it can select food that it will eat. This both saves on guesswork and ensures that their trainer will eat well themselves. However, this makes raticate one of the most expensive pokémon on Alola to train, exceeded only by those with hyper-specialized diets or medical needs (komala, fossils), very large pokémon (snorlax, dragons), or those that require specialized insurance packages (vanilluxe, volcarona, metagross, sableye, klefki, magnezone).

Raticate require objects, preferably metal or bone, to gnaw on. If they are not provided these objects, they will resort to chewing on furniture, load-bearing walls and kitchen appliances.

In the wild, raticate use specialized chambers of their nest for urination and defecation. This makes them quite easy to house train.

Raticate will ask to be groomed at least twice a week. They are physiologically incapable of grooming themselves and quite insistent on cleanliness. Rattata can be trained to help tidy up their home, but raticate are reluctant to do any extra work. Both stages are very social and cuddly pokémon and will usually seek to be close to their trainer. The species enjoys sleeping alongside their trainer, but their sleep patterns tend to prevent this from happening. Fully grown raticate seldom mind being used as a pillow during the day.

As naturally hierarchial pokémon, rattata acclimate rather quickly to taking orders from a human. Female raticate are somewhat harder to tame, but they will usually become complacent with a human who feeds them well.

Illness

Both stages are carriers of several human diseases. They should be vaccinated within two weeks of capture or birth. In addition to being able to get their trainer sick, they can also be infected by their trainer. The best solution to this is keeping both you and your raticate clean.

Raticate gain increasingly sensitive stomachs as they grow, making them rather vulnerable to food poisoning. They will usually refuse food that would make them sick, but sometimes they make an error in judgment or, if desperate, will eat food they suspect is bad. Food poisoning will manifest as nausea and slight bloating (which can be hard to notice); the symptoms will usually go away on their own within a day or two.

Gumshoos were introduced to Alola to curtail the growing raticate population. Ultimately, they proved unsuccessful. This is largely because Alola's relative dearth of mid-size nocturnal predators allowed the raticate to become nocturnal and avoid gumshoos with relatively few consequences. The raticate population was ultimately checked by another invasive species, albeit one introduced unintentionally. The white mask fungus is a parasitic mold that spreads across a raticate's face, preventing breathing, contaminating the food they eat and usually blinding them. It is the leading cause of raticate death in captivity and the second most common in the wild, after malnutrition (it is probably the leading cause of death for wild raticate when rattata are discounted, but it has proven difficult to confirm this). The first sign of an infection is usually a raticate vigorously rubbing their face against an object without gnawing on it. Infections spotted very early on can be treated. Otherwise, the raticate will need to be euthanized.

Evolution

Rattata, provided they are sufficiently fed, will typically evolve into a raticate within eighteen months. Very well fed rattata or those that battle frequently can evolve in less than a year. The appearance of cream colored fur surrounding their entire mouth is the formal demarcation line between rattata and raticate.

Battle

The Alolan raticate has no presence in the international or national professional battling circuits. Other subspecies do, although they are usually a crutch for young trainers due to the relatively short time it takes to fully train one and raise it to maturity. Before the atomic raticate was banned in every major circuit, it was well on its way to establishing itself as one of the premier threats on the international competitive scene. At present it is highly unlikely the restrictions upon it will ever be lifted.

Rattata are fast but fragile, and their bite is one of the strongest attacks that new trainers are likely to have access to. The optimal strategies for a rattata take advantage of this through priority or speed-boosting moves to dodge attacks and close the distance. Rattata fight somewhat better against large opponents than small ones as they can attack the places of their opponent's body they cannot easily reach, and their claws let them hold on when the opponent attempts to shake them off. The species is surprisingly clever and capable of learning a number of dark-type tricks and attacks.

Raticate do not like to fight. They are nowhere near as agile as their preevolution, although they sport the bulk necessary to take a few hits before going down. The sheer power of a raticate bite is enough to end most fights within minutes, but by that point the raticate will likely either be too injured to continue or seek to give up. By the time a raticate reaches maturity, it is best to retire it to the role of grocery shopping aid and refocus training time and resources on pokémon with a more combative disposition and a higher strength ceiling.

Acquisition

Rattata can be caught, adopted, or purchased with a Class I license. They can be found nearly anywhere in Alola at night, or in caves or dense forests during the day.

Raticate can be adopted or purchased with a Class I license, or caught with a Class II license. They are usually only found safeguarding their nests underground, alongside dozens of rattata that will defend them in battle. Trainers wishing to train their own a raticate should simply capture and raise a rattata.

Due to their fecundity, the few trainers who wish to breed raticate will often end up with more offspring than they desire to keep. As such, rattata can be easily purchased or adopted in the major cities of Alola.

Breeding

A raticate exposed to another raticate (or a closely related species) of the opposite sex will attempt to breed with it. They have no particular breeding season and, in the wild, are believed to reproduce continuously. After a pregnancy of roughly eighty days, a raticate will give birth to around fifteen offspring. Trainers are required to spay or neuter their raticate unless they possess a permit to breed them.

Subspecies

Unlike dartrix, the various subspecies of raticate do not fall into clear groupings. Only a handful of particularly common or interesting subspecies will be noted here. Trainers wishing to do further reading are advised to go to their local library and check out a copy of _Raticate: A Story of Global Conquest_ by Dr. Elaine Faraday.

The two most common subspecies of raticate worldwide are often referred to as the eastern and western raticate. The eastern raticate is the direct ancestor of the Alolan raticate. They have a lighter coloration, with cream chest fur and light brown fur on their back. Eastern raticate are bulky than their descendants and are primarily quadrupeds who sometimes rear up on their hind legs for intimidation. The subspecies is even more prodigous than the Alolan raticate and can produce up to seventy offspring a year. Unlike the Alolan raticate, the eastern raticate is primarily diurnal. Most of their diet is comprised of small animals and pokémon, although they have also been known to dig up the roots of plants and eat them. Eastern raticate are found in eastern China, northern India, Central Asia, and many of the southern Japanese islands.

Western raticate have dark grey fur. Their tails are longer than their eastern counterparts and covered in fur. They are much more slender (and smaller, reaching lengths of only 0.6 meters) and have more developed legs and feet tipped in long claws. Western raticate do not dig burrows or seek shelter in caves. They live in social groups of one pair of raticate and their most recent litter. Western raticate seek shelter in tall grass, marshlands or tree branches when possible. Their range covers temperate Europe from the Iberian peninsula to the Caucuses. Most raticate subspecies in the Americas are their descendants.

Raticate have fared poorly in Africa due to the sheer number of mid-sized predators that exist, including the plains gumshoos. The main subspecies there is the six-eyed raticate. These raticate do not, in fact, have six eyes; they have two and, ironically, are nearly blind. The remaining :eyes" are their nostrils and two facial markings that serve and unknown purpose. They are one of the smaller raticate subspecies (the largest recorded specimen was, from their nose to the end of their tail, 0.36 meters long), but they are also one of the heaviest, reaching weights of up to 30 kilograms. This is because their bodies are coated in thin layers of metallic fur, and their claws are composed of nearly pure iron. They dig and live in elaborate tunnel networks underground. One of the few things that is well documented is that they seek out and eat metal deposits. This previously limited their range and numbers, but the growth of modern, metal-filled cities on the continent has removed these limiting factors. There have been dozens of events where swarms of thousands of six-eyed raticate ascend upon the business district of an African city and begin to devour the buildings. Whether or not they eat something other than metal has yet to be established, as they have a history of eating any cameras stuck in to their tunnels to observe them. No specimen has survived in captivity for more than three weeks.

Polar raticate, native to Scandanavia, northern Siberia, Alaska, northern Canada and Greenland, are some of the largest and most aggressive predators among the raticate subspecies, reaching lengths of up to 1.3 meters. They have thick white fur coats and their hind legs are large and webbed. Their tail is broad and coated in the same waterproof fur as the rest of their body. Unusually for polar animals, they dig deep burrows in the summer and hibernate. They emerge in the winter to hunt. Their prey: other hibernators. They use their keen sense of smell to find the dens of other pokémon or animals. Then they assemble a hunting party of three to six raticate, burrow in and use their superior numbers and sharp teeth and front claws to overwhelm and kill their young or sluggish prey. Then the pack will disassemble and move on to finding their next target. Polar raticate are currently endangered across their entire range due to hunting, climate change (especially potent in the post-Sootopolis atmosphere), and capture. Prior to the Arctic Wildlife Protection Pact, polar raticate were common in professional battling circuits as an anti-metagame pick due to their niche as a slayer of apex hunters and their status as one of the few ice-types with good speed, power and bulk.

The Caribbean raticate is the only species known to spend most of its time in the water year round. They have long, broad tails roughly equal to half of their body length (1.1 meters, tail included). Their paws are large and webbed and their body is slender with short, fine, counter-shaded fur. Caribbean raticate swim out to coral reefs or similarly abundant areas during the day and dive down to hunt slow moving or stationary pokémon underwater. They use their front paws to grab ahold of their prey and their powerful jaws to crunch down and kill it. Carribean raticate are the only predators of the Gulf clamperl. At night they retreat to nearby islands to sleep on or near the shore. Faster invasive species such as sharpedo have begun to compete with them for food or hunt them directly, leading to a sharp decline in their numbers in the last fifteen years. The species is still in no danger of going extinct due to a strong captive breeding program. The Hau'oli Zoo currently has a breeding pair on display.

While the six-eyed raticate can damage cities and the western raticate is a well-known carrier of plagues, neither has terrified the public quite like the so-called atomic raticate. Prior to 1971, the dominant raticate subspecies in Papua New Guinea were arboreal herbivores that moved from tree to tree eating leaves and fruit and using their fangs to tear into trunks to drink water inside of the tree. This subspecies, the New Guinean raticate, only reached lengths of roughly 0.8 meters. In March 1971, the United States government began a series of oceanic hydrogen bomb tests in the sea between Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. That August, a field biologist in New Guinea recorded seeing a raticate roughly two meters in length. In October a second biologist working on the opposite side of the country documented a three-meter raticate. The atomic raticate became too large for the trees to support them and they moved to the ground. At some point, they changed their diet to suit their new habitat. By the start of 1971 the provinces of Enga, the Southern Highlands, the Western Highlands and Hela had experienced mortality rates of over 80%.

In 1974, there was an outbreak of crossbred atomic and western raticate in the suburbs of London. Approximately 85,000 people were killed over the course of three years. A 1982 outbreak in Toronto led to the destruction of the city's subway system and the deaths of approximately 11,000 people. Subsequent outbreaks across Canada killed another 5,000, although there have been no sightings of the species outside of New Guinea since 2002. Atomic raticate are by far the most prodigious breeders of all subspecies, capable of producing up to 600 offspring a year, which mature over the course of roughly eleven months if properly fed. They have been known to bide their time in the forests near urban areas, slowly killing off the local wildlife until their numbers are great enough to begin their proper hunt. They actively seek out humans to kill and eat. It is unknown if this is for sport or nutritional reasons.

International law prohibits the study of live atomic raticate specimens and field research upon them is extremely difficult. The limited research conducted by professional battlers and biologists prior to the London and Toronto outbreaks suggested that the atomic raticate had a very powerful connection to whatever force it is that allows pokémon to do what baseline plants, animals and minerals cannot. This granted them effective dynakinesis, creating bursts of fire, radiation or electricity around their body. Their crossbred offspring exhibited exceptional elemental powers of the other subspecies' typing. All variations of the atomic raticate used their power to dampen incoming attacks of almost every nature, making them nigh-invulnerable to everything but some toxins.

In 1997, the United Nations Security Council designated the island of New Guinea as a nature preserve under U.N. administration and began to relocate the survivors. Australia was initially supposed to take the refugees, but a new government installed at the last minute prevented them from disembarking. At present they are being held on the Solomon Islands in a state of legal limbo.

Drone expeditions and satellite imagery have confirmed that the atomic raticate population remains strong on New Guinea but have found very little else there except for plants, birds, and canopy-dwelling pokémon. It is unclear exactly what the raticate are eating. If there is any silver lining, it is that the atomic raticate are not adept swimmers. It is illegal under international law to possess a Caribbean raticate within 300 kilometers of New Guinea in order to prevent this from changing.


	7. Butterfree

**Metapod (Caterpie, Butterfree)**

Overview

There is a paradox at the heart of Alolan ecology. Virtually all pokémon on the island save the birds were introduced by humans, either by the original Polynesian settlers or the waves of colonizers and immigrants who came later on. Alola's ecology is also remarkably balanced. With the partial exceptions of gumshoos and rattata, no single species has come to dominate the island. Even the dozen or so apex predators mostly keep their numbers and ranges small and specialized to minimize conflict and further diversify the ecosystem. Scientists are are conflicted on why, exactly, this is. Metapod are as good a representation as any as to how this can be true.

Metapod were introduced to Alola by Japanese immigrants in the 1920s. They quickly carved out a niche and expanded in population… to a point. A variety of factors prevented metapod from ever experiencing the initial explosive growth rates of some invasive species. To start with, caterpie and butterfree are picky eaters who's preferred diet mostly constitutes introduced plants, which are themselves limited by other factors. While they later became quite fond of the so-called "meadow quartet," they found competition in those spaces from ribombee and oricorio, in addition to the migratory birds in Alola that already knew how to deal with metapod.

There has never been a serious attempt to exterminate the metapod population. This is because they have come to fill an important ecological niche. Ribombee tend to go dormant in the wet season, allowing newly evolved butterfree to pick up the slack as the dominant pollinator. Butterfree are also widely regarded as the most beautiful of Alola's insect pokémon and the blue butterfree in particular has become a source of pride.

Due to their relative cuteness, low maintenance, battle niche and short life expectancy, metapod are an excellent first bug-type for trainers. They are also quite gentle and surprisingly playful. This makes them a popular pet for acclimating children to pokémon.

Physiology

Caterpie and metapod are classified as pure bug-types. Butterfree is classified as a bug/flying type. There have been period efforts to consider it as either a bug/psychic or a psychic/flying type, but its powerful flight and control of wind currents as well as its distinctly insectlike anatomy have led to those proposals being rejected.

Caterpie looks like a green worm with eight distinct segments of decreasing size from head to tail. The head has two large eye-like markings. These are not actually their eyes and are used solely for intimidation. The eyes are slightly below the markings. Caterpie have a pair of legs on each segment but their first and last. Their head has a large branched antennae. They do not appear to use this antennae for sensory purposes; it contains glands that allow them to emit a horrific stench.

Metapod are shaped like green crescent moons with eyes. Once again, these are not real eyes. Metapod do not, strictly speaking, have eyes. They do have eye spots which allow them to sense ambient light levels. The shell of a metapod is extremely durable, capable of taking hits from even pikipek and other young birds. By contrast, their insides are mostly composed of a highly viscous liquid except immediately after and immediately before evolution (see Evolution).

Metapod seldom move and never eat or defecate. The most metapod can do in their own defense is secrete a sticky silk-like substance. There have even been some attempts in the scientific community to reclassify metapod as an egg rather than a pokémon, with caterpie and butterfree being technically separate species. This theory has not gained the endorsement of any major scientific organization. Metapod are typically around 0.7 meters tall and have a weight of roughly 10 kilograms.

Butterfree grow to a height around 1 meter and a weight of roughly 16 kilograms. Other guidebooks have reported butterfree's mass as exceeding 32 kilograms, which is obviously false. No insect of butterfree's size could fly, much less float and glide, with that mass. It is true that a butterfree drenched in water can reach a weight close to that, but it seems disingenuous to count that as its true weight.

Butterfree possess a body with two blue segments, blue feet and red feelers. Additionally, they possess a large pair of red compound eyes. Their wings are far larger than their main body and have a white coloration with various black lines marking them. Butterfree wings are remarkably water resistant and they are both strong and nimble fliers. This enables them to launch spores up to ten meters with reasonable accuracy, as well as fly relatively unencumbered in even the heaviest of rains.

In captivity and the wild, butterfree can live up to fifteen months after evolving, but they typically only live for about ten (see Illness). Caterpie can live up to two months before they attempt evolution, even in highly unfavorable circumstances. Metapod may be immortal if not exposed to injury or water.

Behavior

All stages of the evolutionary line are almost exclusively herbivorous. They primarily seek out and eat plants with either an unpleasant taste or toxic properties. Caterpie and metapod store the spores, toxins and oils inside of themselves to create horrific smells and tastes to deter would-be predators. Butterfree are more active in seeking out specific spores, which they then store in chambers right beneath their wings. They can then emit powders with effects dependent upon their diet. In Alola, Melemele butterfree typically specialize in paralytics, Akala butterfree in psychoactive powders, Ula'Ula butterfree in chemical burns and rashes, and Poni butterfree in sleep inducing spores and other depressants. In captivity their diet can be selected to alter or maximize their capabilities (see Husbandry).

Even with their foul taste butterfree still have a fair few predators. Some birds such as fearow, noctowl and skarmory have olfactory glands weak enough to eat butterfree with only mild stomach irritation. Crobat can also shrug off some of their spore attacks and ambush butterfree at night when their vision is weaker and they tend to be tired or asleep. Snorlax and toucannon sometimes prey upon metapod. Arbok prey upon metapod and caterpie. Ariados have been known to snare and hunt caterpie and butterfree and, on the rare occasion that they leave their nest, they have been known to carry back any metapod they encounter to feed upon at a later time.

Caterpie are diurnal foragers. They have a highly developed sense of smell and will walk for up to 100 meters to find the optimal plant in range. This may not sound like a long distance, but for a small and slow-moving insect, it definitely is. Once a caterpie finds their desired tree it will climb into it and eat leaves until it is forced out by a competitor or predator, the tree dies or stops producing leaves, or a better foraging opportunity presents itself. When a caterpie exits a tree they produce a silk line and slowly lower themselves to the ground. A captive caterpie that is provided leaves at regular time and in adequate supply will still seek to climb on objects around it such as walls, lamps or their trainer.

Metapod have no behaviors worth noting, beyond their complete absence of any movement beyond reflexive self-defense.

Butterfree are diurnal, but they are most active whenever it is raining to take advantage of weather that grounds other birds. They also serve as pollinators, seeking out nectar and other sweet substances and then moving from plant to plant. Most smoothie stores in their range tend to have at least one resident butterfree camped out nearby, hoping to pilfer leftovers or steal from customers. When dormant, they perch and sleep in the canopies of tall trees. They sleep with their wings fully extended at their sides to make them appear larger to any would-be attackers.

Husbandry

Caterpie primarily eat leaves, although some nutritional supplements can be mixed in. Trainers should conduct further research with a more specialized guide and alter their caterpie's diet towards more toxic or foul-tasting plants that the caterpie can still digest. All bug catching stores and some general pokémon supplies stores will keep these leaves in stock. Caterpie being raised as pets, especially for small children, should be fed a standard leaf mix available at all Pokémon Centers and supply stores. This prevents them from gaining a particularly foul scent.

Metapod do not consume food.

Butterfree diets are more difficult to replicate in captivity. Some mix of fruit, flowers, and nectar is advisable. Detailed specialist guides can outline combinations that have been shown to work well for butterfree aimed at battling. A simple assortment of fresh or live flowers, honey and nectar will usually do the trick. Sugar water and fruit juices make for good rewards.

Caterpie cannot be housebroken. Butterfree can be, although it requires a fair bit of effort and will likely require a more experienced bug trainer to assist in the process. Caterpie waste is a dense soild; butterfree waste is a thin, almost colorless liquid.

It is recommended that trainers bond with their caterpie before it evolves into metapod. This can be accomplished by supervising it while it forages in nature, holding leaves and making the caterpie crawl over you to get them or providing it a climbing perch where its leaves are regularly provided with the trainer standing or sitting nearby it. All of these activities get caterpie to associate their trainer with food.

Butterfree will frequently perch on their trainers' head or outstretched arm when allowed to do so. As a word of caution, they are surprisingly heavy. A gentle flick of the arm or head will usually be enough to convince them to leave. They are remarkably intelligent and enjoy toys such as balls, puzzles containing nectar, fans, surfaces with strange textures, fog machines, and strobe lights. It is good for butterfree's enrichment to allow them to go outside on rainy days. Few of their predators fly in the rain, which makes it one of the few times they can safely remain unsupervised. Butterfree are smart enough to be taught to respond to even fairly complex verbal commands with time.

Caterpie show no particular aversion to being held inside a pokéball. Metapod should be transferred inside of a pokéball, but should otherwise be left alone and outside of their ball. Butterfree resent being held in all but the most comfortable pokéballs during the day, although it is sometimes necessary to keep them from flying off. They show no particular aversion to their ball at night, and some butterfree seem to prefer it as a means of keeping them safe from real or imagined predators.

Illness

Unfortunately, time is something butterfree have in short supply. In their native range, caterpie typically hatch in early spring, evolve a few weeks later, evolve again two to six weeks after that, lay eggs in the fall and die off in the winter. Migration is largely impossible as they are outcompeted by faster and more aggressive butterfly and moth species to the south of them.

In Alola there is no particular reason that they need to die off in the winter. However, butterfree macroevolution has done little to select against age-related diseases beyond eight months. As such, butterfree typically succumb to organ failure or cancer between nine and twelve months of age. Some butterfree have been documented as living a few months longer, but none have ever lived to see sixteen months

Some injuries affecting caterpie, metapod and butterfree can be cured. Veterinarians at Pokémon Centers will fix up the simple ones for free. Most serious injuries or those related to illness rather than battle wounds are not covered for the simple reason that they would give the butterfree another year of life at most. Theoretically, some private sector veterinarians may be willing to cure serious butterfree illnesses. But butterfree trainers must consider if it is worth paying large amounts of money to keep their pokémon alive for another few months.

Evolution

A well-fed caterpie will grow rapidly over the course of roughly six weeks. They do not grow linearly; they periodically shed their skin and crawl out. Over the next twelve hours they grow in size and develop another exoskeleton. This process will be repeated roughly ten times before caterpie are able to evolve.

In the wild, caterpie climb up to an inaccessible or hidden spot in a tree, tie a thick silk line, and form a thick exoskeleton cocoon around themselves. In captivity, caterpie should be provided a safe place to rest at least once a week to see if they will evolve. Once evolution occurs, the metapod should be left undisturbed in the same place for a week. They should never be battled with. If a metapod evolves inside of a Pokémon Center room, the trainer will be allowed to stay there for the full week.

Metapod evolve under very harsh or persistent rain. In nature they can sometimes lie dormant for the entire dry season. If natural rain is unavailable one to three weeks after metapod evolves in captivity, it is best to seek out a sprinkler room used to care for amphibians and water-types. Some of the largest Pokémon Centers have them. Failing that, most fish or herpetology specializing stores will typically have such a room available for a fee.

Inside of the metapod, the caterpie's organs and flesh steadily dissolve into a thick green goo. As evolution progresses, the goo steadily reforms into a miniature butterfree. When the process is complete, the new butterfly will break out of the metapod shell and fly away. Butterfree grow from their initial size to their final size over the course of two to three weeks.

Battle

Caterpie are not natural battlers and actively avoid conflict whenever possible. In the wild their primary defense mechanism is to be so foul tasting and smelling that almost nothing wants to eat them. In captivity, this makes them hard to coax into fights beyond forcing them onto a battlefield and hoping they reflexively defend themselves. Caterpie are typically too nervous or unintelligent to be properly trained. Their self defense mechanisms amount to (weak) bites, (weak) full body tackles, discharges from its scent glands, and (strong) silk tripwires it uses to bind or trap opponents. It should be noted that caterpie will simply run away from a sufficiently bound foe rather than taking the opportunity to damage them further. It is recommended that if caterpie must be used in battle at all, they be used to tie up a particularly tricky opponent and then be withdrawn or forfeited to give another more combative 'mon an opening.

Metapod should not be battled with. The slabs of their exoskeleton are incredibly durable and can take hits from pikipek and rattata. However, they are poorly built for handling impacts and will frequently burst and lose their inner liquid. These injuries are fatal.

Many an aspiring youngster or bug catcher has dreamed of shocking the world stage with their butterfree, something they believe to be criminally underrated. This belief is supported by the simple fact that most trainer's first abject humiliation comes from a butterfree. Flying projectile users are incredibly good counters for melee fighters. Butterfree have access to moderately powerful psychic attacks and delicate but powerful wings. Those traits in tandem allow them to strike with gusts of wind or carry spores to hit their target with surprising accuracy. From there it's only a matter of time before they finish their helpless opponent off.

More clever trainers still will note that butterfree would be a perfect addition to so-called "rain teams," because they are capable fliers, the rain mitigates super effective fire attacks, and the weather allows for more powerful hurricane attacks. Even if there isn't rain on the field, butterfree's aim allows it to usually land hurricanes.

Butterfree is not the strongest of pokémon. Or the fastest. Or the most durable. There's a reason that their main defense in the wild is being inedible. A well-used butterfree might remain viable towards the end of an island challenge, but on the world stage it's hopelessly outmatched as a rain flier by pokémon such as swanna and pelipper. Its role as a status spreader is better left to bulky grass-types.

Acquisition

Caterpie are most common in meadows, temperate forests and near large man-made gardens or orchards. All stages of the evolutionary line can be captured, trained, adopted or purchased with a Class I license. Many trainers are tempted to go straight for capturing butterfree as there are no higher license requirements for doing so. This is usually inadvisable. To start with, butterfree are free-spirited, intelligent, and hate confinement. By the time a trainer gets a butterfree to cooperate, it will either be mostly obsolete in battle or on death's door. Butterfree tend to reflexively trust trainers who cared for them and fed them as a caterpie and watched over them as a metapod.

Metapod can, technically, be captured. This ensures that a butterfree is obtained while they're still young and the capture process is much easier. However, the butterfree will not recognize their trainer and all the usual problems of establishing dominance will apply.

Most shelters simply release butterfree. They don't fare well indoors and tend to fare well upon reintroduction to the wild.

Butterfree, especially those of alternate colorations, can usually be purchased from breeders in major cities or near flower meadows. However, they will often charge a price that may not be worth paying to have a low-power pokémon for a few months. Caterpie are frequently sold in pet stores, but there's no particular reason to pay to obtain one when they're already quite common and not particularly hard to capture in the wild. Captive-born caterpie will be slightly more used to humans, but caterpie adjust to new circumstances quite quickly as it is.

Breeding

Butterfree find mates during the summer and fall months. After a courtship ritual involving elaborate flight patterns and one party providing the other with flowers or honey, they will consummate the relationship. Roughly three weeks later, the female will lay their eggs in leaves near the canopy of a tree, typically during or after rainstorms. They do not continue to watch these eggs after they are laid and show no particular loyalty to their offspring. In captivity, butterfree are somewhat more maternal and have been known to roost over their nest during their day and seek out and provide food to their offspring once they hatch. The reason for this difference is unknown.

Butterfree can be bred in captivity. Provide the butterfree a mid-sized real or artificial tree in an indoor environment. Make sure the environment is kept relatively moist. Have enough leaves in supply to feed the caterpie once they hatch. They are often bred for their color schemes; several Alolan breeders specialize in blue-winged butterfree.

Subspecies

Butterfree technically has no subspecies. However, it does have alternate color schemes. While these do not have any major physiological differences they still appear to be more different from the baseline butterfree than some actual subspecies do. The most common alternate color schemes are blue, yellow, pink, orange, and dark green butterfree. Botanical gardens, zoos and the royal aviary frequently have summer exhibits displaying butterfree of many different colors. These butterfree enjoy no substantial benefits in combat, but they do cost more to obtain and are almost exclusively found in captivity.


	8. Ledian

**Ledian (Ledyba)**

Overview

There is a peculiar sort of modern arrogance that history can be divided into two phases: the era of primitive mysticism and the Age of Science. The latter began only a few centuries ago. Before it no significant advances were made beyond, perhaps, the very basics of mathematics. Sometimes in their rush to repudiate 'superstition,' scientists rush to dissenting opinions when, in reality, the ancient wisdom was largely correct. Ledian appears to be one of those cases.

The ancient poets, from India to Kalos to the Andes, claimed that ledian fed upon starlight. In the late 1700s a man by the name of John Alabaster published a lengthy treatise on how this belief was the height of ancient foolishness. Cultures around the world had built and protected homes for ledbya near their fields because ledyba prey upon other bugs. The same farmers would also complain when ledian ate the fruit from their orchards. What place was there for starlight in their diet?

It is true that ledyba hunt bugs and ledian are very fond of fruit. However, it has been recently discovered that the cells on a ledian's carapace appear to generate energy in reaction to starlight that isn't from the sun. It is unknown what advantage they reap from this that they would not gain from simple photosynthesis. The leading theory, that they need only dim light, has been disproved routinely in experiments. Extrapolating from close relatives is also difficult. While ledbya look almost exactly like a larger version of a baseline insect, their organ systems are closer to a klinklang than a butterfree, to the extent that their physiology is understood at all.

Ledian are fascinating and loyal pets that can hold their own in even international competitions. Unfortunately, "the cycle" (see Breeding) limits the times in which ledian are available and even further limits the amount of time most trainers will have to bond with their partners.

Physiology

All stages of ledian are classified by the Department of Agriculture as dual bug- and flying-types. The department is currently in the process of reconsidering its prior ruling in favor of a bug- and fairy-typing because of the species' strong connection to starlight.

Ledyba have two segments. The larger of the two contains its wings and six proportionally small legs. The back of its carapace is marked with five black stars. The exact size and pattern of the stars varies between individuals. The second segment contains the ledyba's head. Unusually for insects, their eyes are complex and quite similar to those of cephalopods or vertebrates. They have two large black antennae on their head. These antennae are used for smelling the world. Ledyba have scent glands located right beneath their antennae. They use these glands to signal their emotions, location and intent to conspecifics. ledyba are counter-shaded; their bellies are yellow and their back is primarily orange.

Ledian are some of the largest flying insects, reaching heights of up to 1.6 meters in parts of the world that are both warm year-round and have excellent air quality. Alola is one of those places. Ledian have a proportionally large head segment and a proportionally small 'body' segment. The two are connected by a short but visible neck. Ledian have a visible black dot where their scent glands are. Curiously, ledian have conventional compound eyes rather than the more complex eyes of their juvenile form. Ledian legs become more specialized, with two serving as 'feet' used for balance mid-flight and four growing longer and developing hard, round tips that vaguely resemble boxing gloves. Ledian gain a darker red coloration upon their backs.

Ledbya appear to subsist entirely upon starlight. Ledian sometimes eat very sweet fruit or berries during long summers, long periods of continuous cloud cover, or during periods of abnormally bad air quality. Ledian have never been observed producing waste. Their digestive system, like almost all of their other organs, appears to be entirely different from known organic pokémon. The inner workings of ledian are still largely a mystery. Some organs (their 'brain,' their scent glands, their three hearts) readily appear to have a purpose. Most of their organs do not.

The amount of energy a ledian obtains from starlight appears to be based upon the number of stars visible, air quality, cloud cover, the phase of the moon and the length of the night. There is preliminary evidence that ledian energy production might depend upon the alignment of planets, long-term fluctuations of the Earth's tilt and distance from the sun, and the presence of nearby comets.

Behavior

Ledyba are some of the most gregarious of all pokémon, preferring to live in swarms of several hundred members. Ledian are less social, but still prefer to live in groups of six or more. In the wild ledyba are known for forming huge swarms and, when attacked, grouping together and throwing up reflective shields around the entire swarm. However, particularly powerful or stealthy birds enjoy preying upon ledyba, which causes their numbers to steadily decline. Even with human training and protection, the total number of ledian in Alola inevitably declines to roughly 1000 at its low point.

Ledyba have long been known to find and kill other non-pokémon insects in their home. Ledyba emit a steadily stream of a weak insecticide from their scent glands and use their weak punches and wind attacks when their poison alone won't do the trick. The purpose of these hunts is unclear, as they do not compete for food with these insects and they seldom attack ledyba except in self-defense. Because they usually spare pollinators, ledyba are beloved by farmers. The species was deliberately introduced in 1851 to safeguard sugar plantations. This introduction has led to a decline in local insect populations, but the popularity of Alola as a rookery for large birds of prey (fearow, braviary, honchkrow, mandibuzz, talonflame, skarmory, noivern, noctowl) has kept the ledian population in check.

Ledian also make a habit of hunting bugs. Unlike their juvenile form, they hunt down pokémon insects. They spare pollinators such as ribombee and butterfree. There are records of ledian going after vikavolt in the first few cycles after their arrival in Alola, but they have since stopped hunting vikavolt and vikavolt, in turn, have stopped hunting them. Almost all other bug-types are fair game. Ledian punches are surprisingly powerful and can be unleashed at rates of up to 130 total punches a second when counting all four arms. Ledian's preferred tactic is to ambush a bug while it rests and unleash fast, targeted punches to a particular area on their target's exoskeleton. The resulting force is not intended to break the exoskeleton. Rather, it is meant to put pressure on weak points elsewhere and cause the insect to burst open. Ledian hunt insects that do not compete for space and food. They do not eat the remains or lay eggs in it.

Attempts to discern their reasoning through telepathy have only succeeded in traumatizing the psychic. Past editions of this guidebook have referred to this trauma as simple arachnophobia. This no longer appears to be the case. The creatures telepaths see when they sync with ledian have nine long legs covered in spines that branch off into clusters of more spines, a core body that appears to be made up of a dodecahedron with giant, rapidly-moving eyes visible on each pane, translucent purple wings almost as large as the rest of the creature, and a constant scream one telepath described as "…a baby crying on a plane, but its voice is a car crash, metal on metal... the volume is always changing… [like] if pure, all-consuming hatred was condensed to a single word…" Telepathic scans have further confirmed that ledian minds are structured nothing like those of any other observed insect pokémon. These traits have made them minds a subject of intense curiosity among non-telepaths in the field of telepath studies, but and also a subject that almost no telepath wants to touch.

It is hypothesized that the so-called "ledian spiders" may be relatives of metagross, a pokémon that is also quite likely to have extraterrestrial origins. Metagross seem fascinated by ledian; ledian will attempt to flee from metagross, disregarding their own safety in the process. Ledian exposed to metagross with no escape route available will frequently attempt suicide. It is strongly recommended that trainers not keep both species on the same team.

All stages of the evolutionary line rest in the day and fly at night in what appear to be elaborate dances and social rituals. It is unclear what the purpose of these are or what they mean, as ledian are just as likely to perform them with a member of their swarm they appear to dislike as they are to perform them their closest partner in the swarm.

Husbandry

As ledyba need no extra food than natural starlight and produce no waste, they would appear to be ideal pets. Unfortunately, several factors complicate this analysis.

To start with, ledyba are uncomfortable living in swarms with fewer than twenty members. This is infeasible to replicate on most standard teams of six pokémon. Ledian are less gregarious, but still require either a full team of six pokémon or near-constant interaction with their trainer. They are intelligent and loyal creatures and enjoy play.

Ledyba prefer to sleep in their pokéballs. Ledian have no particular preference. However, ledyba and ledian both drain their energy reserves while they are in their pokéballs and will need to be let out each night. It is recommended that they have a guard pokémon, preferably an electric, rock, or ice-type, to ward off birds of prey.

Ledian are almost constantly releasing powerful scents to signal their moods. Sometimes these scents can be quite pleasant. Sometimes they are not. It should be accepted that a ledian trainer will gradually gain a rather distinctive scent due to their pet's communications. The species' fondness of cuddling only accelerates the process.

Ledian are some of the easiest pokémon to tame due to the almost absurd lengths they will go to in pursuit of the fruits they enjoy and their love of puzzles. Providing challenges or games with fruit as a reward will convince a ledian to practice their moves, engage in battle, or pick up prosocial behaviors for a comparatively low cost. Ledian do not appear to pick up weight when overfed, but it is best for a trainer's wallet if they don't overdo it. The more rewards a ledian gets, the less they will respond to the opportunity of obtaining food.

As the ledian's life cycle ends, they will attempt to leave their trainer. They should be allowed to go as every surviving ledian is important for restoring the population at the end of the cycle (see Breeding).

It is extremely difficult to train a ledian alongside other bugs. Butterfree, ribombee and vikavolt, as mentioned above, are the only exceptions in Alola. Very experienced bug specialists can sometimes pull it off, but it's a task best left to zookeepers and the world's top trainers and researchers.

Illness

Ledian very seldom get sick. When they do there is absolutely nothing a veterinarian can do for them given their odd physiology. Ill ledian should be comforted, exposed to as much starlight as possible, and left outside of their pokéball. Sometimes they will recover on their own.

However, tempting as it may be, ledian should not be overfed when sick. More than one ledian has come to view feigning illness as a trick they obtain fruit for performing.

Evolution

Ledyba grow steadily after birth through repeated molts until they reach a height of roughly 0.7 meters at roughly seven months of age. At this point their size remains stagnant for one to three months until they begin metamorphosis. The soon-to-be-ledian will drop down to the floor of the swarm's nest and remain there, protected by other members of the swarm, for roughly two weeks. During this period they undergo repeated molting and rapid growth.

Ledyba only evolve when they have a ready source of protection. In most cases, this is their swarm. When a ledyba is held without other ledyba, something that is legal but generally inadvisable, ledyba will only evolve when provided a dark and sheltered area that remains a constant presence in their space for at least one month.

Battle

Ledyba are cowards that actively avoid battle with anything bigger than a few centimeters long. They are more likely than not to simply freeze up when exposed to an opponent.

Ledian are naturally combative and can be disciplined to hold back from killing other bugs with the help of some wild pokémon and fruit. Ledian have access to highly targeted punches, even if they aren't particularly strong, aerokinetic attacks, and low-level telepathic attacks. However, ledian are perhaps best used as supporting pokémon that set up telekinetic barriers, annoy the opponent or set up a sweep. If a trainer is willing to invest time and money on specialized training and TMs, ledian can learn a plethora of nasty tricks to capitalize upon their screens. Roost and drain punch compensate for their relative frailty, even with screens. Tailwind, agility, substitute, swords dance and baton pass can help set up another teammate. Encore, infestation and u-turn can help establish momentum. Ledian are also intelligent enough to know multiple tricks simultaneously which can keep opponents guessing as to whether ledian is a momentum-builder, a sweep enabler or an all-out attacker. This has given ledian a niche in competitive battling circuits despite their lack of bulk or power.

For amateurs with less time, resources and knowledge to put into training a ledian, it is best to go for a screen-augmented attacker route. Mix the classic protective screens (reflect, light screen, safeguard) with moves such as comet punch, bug buzz and air slash together and you'll have a pokémon that can continue to play a role through either the end of the island challenge or the end of the cycle, whichever comes first.

Acquisition

Ledyba require a Class II license to capture, adopt or purchase. Ledian only require a Class I license. The disparity is in place to prevent trainers without the time, resources or skills to wrangle twenty or more ledyba from trying to do so.

The abundance of ledian and their evolutionary stage largely depend on the time in the cycle. To learn about ledian availability, consult a bug pokémon or agricultural supplies store. At some points in the cycle the capture of ledian is strictly prohibited. Late in the cycle when ledian are present and no longer living in large swarms, they can typically be found near orchards, gardens, plantations or some sparse temperate forests. Ledian are easily intrigued and bribed with fruit and, after they have let their guard down, hugs. They can be overpowered and captured, but it's usually best to get them to join your team voluntarily. Simply giving them food, attention and a community is enough to establish dominance over them.

Breeding

It is impossible to breed ledian in captivity.

Ledian operate on well-known cycles based around total lunar eclipses, which occur about once every 2.5 years. Eggs are laid during the eclipse and hatch two to three weeks later. Ledyba eggs are about the size of a ping-pong ball and look and feel more like a crystal than a standard egg. The eggs are translucent and the growing ledyba is clearly visible.

When the ledyba eggs hatch, there are suddenly hundreds of thousands of tiny ledyba in Alola guarded by roughly 1000 ledian. Predators, pokémon and otherwise, take advantage of this. When the start of the cycle coincides with the breeding season of migratory birds mortality is particularly high. By the time ledyba reach full size, there are typically only ten thousand remaining in the archipelago. Once all the ledyba have evolved roughly ten months in to the cycle, they begin to split off into smaller swarms of ten to twenty individuals. Individuals and swarms are gradually coaxed into captivity or killed off by predators until only about 50 swarms remain in the wild, with another 25 in captivity on large plantations. The remainder are held by private trainers or zoos and botanical gardens.

As the end of the cycle nears, the captive ledian will begin to leave their trainers to return to the place of their birth. On the night of the total lunar eclipse, the ledian will begin one final moonlight ritual, this one with a clear purpose. Details of this event are largely unknown as ledian react with hostility to humans approaching their mating grounds and have even been known to destroy drones sent in to observe. The next morning, the ground of the mating areas are littered with eggs. Ledian will spend the next six months fiercely defending their offspring. Most will die in this process as predators flock to the swarms.

The remaining ledian will begin to die off six months after the eclipse, unleashing powerful and incomprehensible psychic waves as they do so. Some captive ledian will choose to return to their trainers to die. Those that successfully return will embrace their human and initiate a psychic connection. Trainers report visions of vast fields of brightly colored stars and what appears to be a nebula in the middle-distance. The humans often report feelings of confusion and awe at mundane objects such as trees or forks in the following weeks, along with an overpowering sense of love for almost everyone and everything.

Subspecies

None known.


	9. Ariados

**Ariados (Spinarak) | Ālìduōsī (Xiànqiú)**

Overview

It is somewhat uncommon for two subspecies of the same pokémon to coexist in the same range. There are forces that encourage specialization, but the pokémon in an area usually continue to interbreed enough that the subspeciation process is slow.

Ariados is the first pokémon discussed in this guide with two subspecies classified by the Department of Agriculture as having "significant populations" in the Commonwealth of Alola. These are commonly referred to outside of Alola as the Yangtze ariados and the Alolan ariados. Within Alola, the latter are just called "ariados" (spinarak as juveniles) and the former are referred to by their transliterated Chinese name, ālìduōsī (xiànqiú as juveniles). These names will be used unless noted otherwise.

The ancestors of ālìduōsī, now extinct, were smaller, nimbler and more aggressive than the current pokémon. Even while the humans in their range despised the spiders, they had to respect the sheer durability of their silk, which was capable of withstanding slashes from all but the sharpest of bronze swords. Eventually, the Chinese domesticated the species. Anthropologists have yet to figure out exactly how the happened. The folklore revolves around a woman who was cursed to become a spider for infidelity, married a male of the species and served as a dutiful wife, and was then rewarded with humanity by the gods. However, she still loved her spider children and raised them as her own.

This is perhaps the most plausible explanation for how relatively intelligent and asocial man-eating spiders were tamed by humans who had no reliable way of harming or containing them. No other culture managed to domesticate their local spider species, and several of them are less intimidating than the historical record suggests the proto-ālìduōsī were.

For centuries, ālìduōsī silk was known and coveted as far away as the banks of the Niger and Rubicon. Yet the spiders themselves never developed a long-term foothold outside of China, Taiwan, the Korean peninsula, and the Japanese archipelago. Part of this was a deliberate policy decision by the Chinese empires not to export the production of their most valuable commodity. During the Han dynasty smuggling a ālìduōsī out of the country earned execution for the trafficker and their entire family.

The first attempt to raise ālìduōsī on Alola occurred before first contact with Europeans and was apparently unsuccessful. However, some of the descendants of those ālìduōsī would later retreat to the dense jungles of Alola and become ariados.

In the late 1800s, a British entrepreneur decided to try again. Using some ālìduōsī illegally smuggled from China, as well as some purchased from a desperate nobleman in Johto, he set up the first successful ālìduōsī plantation outside of East Asia. Alola's climate meant that ālìduōsī have plenty to eat and never have to hibernate. The only other spider pokémon in Alola are aquatic and relatively docile or, in the case of ariados, generally tolerant of others of their species. Vikavolt were used to keep birds away from the plantation. After only two decades, Elisha Gage owned no less than seven plantations across the islands and was well on his way to being the richest man in the archipelago. His political disputes with the king over taxation led to him bankrolling the overthrow of the monarchy. Four plantations remain today near Malie city and, ironically, Castleton on Ula'Ula. Another two are located on smaller islands to the northwest of the Tapu Isles. Two are located around Melemele and one on Akala.

Gage's company, now known as Gracidea Clothiers, is a multibillion dollar corporation specializing in ālìduōsī silk products and luxury clothing. They have since expanded into jewelry, private security, restaurants, bottled water, wine, and real estate.

(Full disclosure: Gracidea Clothiers is the second largest donor to the Alola Pokémon League, the publishers of this guidebook.)

Physiology

All evolutionary stages of ariados are classified as dual poison- and bug-type pokémon by the Department of Agriculture. All evolutionary stages of ālìduōsī are classified as pure bug-types.

Spinarak are small arachnid pokémon with six legs and two body segments. Their legs are covered in uneven yellow and black stripes. The rest of their body is covered in a mottled green pattern. The stripes and discoloration break up lines of sight and make them harder to see. Most spinarak have features resembling two eyes and a mouth on the back of their body to ward off predators, although their mottled coloration sometimes obscures it. Spinarak produce and release silk from their larger rear segment. Despite common misconceptions, spinarak do not release silk from their anus or genitals. Instead, it is released from a series of nearby glands which each specialize in a specific type of silk. Spinarak's smaller front segment contains the bulk of their central nervous system, although this also spreads into their hind segment and even their legs. The head segment also contains their mouth, venom sacs and eyes (unlike most spider pokémon, all subspecies and evolutionary stages of ariados only have one pair of eyes). Spinarak release venom from a stinger located just above their eyes. Spinarak venom is slow acting and primarily serves to weaken the target's immune system and interfere with their circadian rhythm. The damage it deals is meant to be long-term.

Xiànqiú are slightly larger and bulkier than spinarak. Their legs are proportionally shorter and, instead of a mottled coloration, they are bright green with a clear face pattern on their back. Unlike spinarak, they are somewhat poisonous throughout their entire body but can only emit rather weak venom from their stinger. Xiànqiú are not particularly well equipped for hunting prey and rely mostly upon feedings from either humans or their mother to survive.

Ariados have long, spindly legs with pale yellow and grey stripes. Ariados' main body is covered in chaotic pale green and yellow patterns, often but not always with a black face marking on its back. Like most arachnids, ariados have eight legs. However, one pair is very small and located near their silk glands to manipulate and cut their silk. Spinarak and xiànqiú have only four legs, all in the traditional position. All subspecies of ariados gain two more legs on their back which they use to grab branches above them or other points on their web, as well as defend themselves better against birds and other aerial attackers.

Ariados have more pronounced mandibles and stingers than their juvenile form and their purple eyes are well known in Alola for glowing in the dark. Their venom is almost identical to that of spinarak, although their larger size allows them to possess more of it. Male ariados frequently grow up to 0.7 meters in length and 35 kilograms in mass, with females reaching lengths of 0.8 meters and masses of 40 kilograms.

Ālìduōsī are substantially larger than ariados. The females can reach lengths of up to 1.3 meters and masses of up to 100 kilograms. The smaller males only grow to around 1 meter in length and 80 kilograms in mass. Their coloring is also notably brighter, consisting of yellow and pink stripes and patterns throughout their body with a very distinct black face marking on their back. Their mandibles and stinger are larger still than ariados' and colored pure white. These were both traits ancient farmers selected for aesthetic reasons. While their juvenile form is still rather poisonous, the adults have roughly the same quantity of poison spread throughout a much larger body. It is speculated that their ancestors were, in fact, poisonous enough no bird would eat them and their venom could kill an adult human in less than a day. Farmers probably selected against both traits at some point, as the risk of getting killed by their livestock was more important than the risk of their livestock being killed by birds.

Ariados silk is less easy to work with and color than ālìduōsī silk, but it is also far stickier. Ālìduōsī silk can be stronger than steel and lighter than almost all other cloths. Ariados silk is less durable and lightweight, but they produce more of it relative to their mass. The stickiness of the silk makes it better for snaring prey and worse for clothing humans. Ariados silk is also thinner than their domestic counterparts. This makes their webs more difficult to see.

Ariados live up to two years in both the wild and captivity. Male ālìduōsī live up to three years in captivity and females live up to five years. No substantial wild population of ālìduōsī exists anywhere in the world.

Behavior 

Wild spinarak old enough to have moved away from their mother's web tend to stick to the canopy. They do not make proper webs, instead relying on small networks of tripwires to snare smaller bugs (pokémon and otherwise), young birds and small mammals and reptiles (mostly non-pokémon). The spinarak will drop more strands onto their prey from above or using their ability to shoot out strands a distance of up to fifty centimeters with reasonable accuracy. They will then either finish the prey off with their mandibles or, if it is too large to end in a single bite or too dangerous to get close to, they will stand motionless near their prey until it falls asleep, at which point they will either sting the prey or kill it.

Ariados build elaborate webs spanning from the ground to the canopy. Their webs contain three distinct regions. The first is a dense "house" compartment that the ariados sleeps in during the day to avoid predators that could pick them off their web. The second is a typical spiderweb in the canopy spanning from branch to branch. This is used to capture birds and small creatures who unwittingly crash into it. The ariados will typically approach them from behind and either finish them off immediately or sting them to slow and sedate their prey so it doesn't damage the web or alert other pokémon. The ariados will then eat the prey when it is hungry.

The third portion of an ariados web is a series of thin tripwires spread out near the forest floor. These wires are attached to spools higher up in the web that can contain up to a kilometer of thread each. Once a creature snags itself on one of the threads, it will likely continue moving on none the wiser until it reaches its nest or resting spot. The ariados will then stalk the forest floor at night, following the thread until it reaches not only their sleeping prey but likely their entire family. If the prey are too large, powerful or numerous to take on in one sitting, the ariados will simply craft a web around the den and wait, occasionally landing stings or bites when it is safe to do so. Eventually the prey will die from infection or starvation, or at least fall into a deep enough sleep from the venom's effects that the ariados is comfortable killing them. Ariados can sometimes consume quantities above their body weight over the course of a week from these feasts.

While ariados and ālìduōsī can drink water, and often will in captivity, they are also quite capable of subsisting only off of their prey's bodily fluids.

Ālìduōsī build elaborate structure more closely resembling a bird's nest than a spider's web. They prefer to find several nearby trees or bamboo poles and weave the structure between them, suspended entirely in midair. The exact form of it seems to be learned from the spider's mother and other nearby spiders rather than being an instinctual habit. For reasons unknown, ālìduōsī abandon their webs about once every six months and find a nearby location suitable for creating a new one. If their web is destroyed or severely damaged they will abandon their current site prematurely. This is when their silk is harvested.

Ālìduōsī do not actively hunt, but they will eat anything that lands in their web. Recently abandoned ālìduōsī in the wild have been observed scavenging nearby kills at night and retreating to their nest in the day.

Something many people find off-putting about both subspecies is how friendly they are towards people. Both will seldom attack, much less kill, humans. Ālìduōsī and captive-raised ariados will often seek out and approach humans who enter their territory, especially at night, to greet them and maybe beg for food. Some wild born ariados that have never had a trainer have also been observed doing this. Captive-born spinarak will happily climb all over their trainer and other familiar humans. Xiànqiú are more cowardly and are frequently under their mother's watchful eye, but if they feel safe they sometimes will. Ariados have been known to attempt this but, given their large size, they usually fail and knock their trainer over. They then scurry away and hide out of either embarrassment or fear of retaliation.

Husbandry

All stages of the ariados line are carnivores, although they sometimes will eat plant-based treats. They can be fed pre-prepared food mixes such as dog, cat or insectivore food. Meat intended for human consumption, either cooked or raw, is also good. It is best to vary an ariados' diet over time. Food should be used as a reward for good behavior to help tame them, especially if the spider was captured as an ariados. Placing food around the environment and making the ariados hunt for it is also good for their mental well-being and prevents them from becoming entirely sedentary.

In the wild, ariados avoid defecating near their web as the scent alerts some prey species to the presence of spiders. Instead the ariados leaves their web at night and walks up to three kilometers away (although usually no more than one, especially if they have young) to relieve themselves. If the ariados is a mother with young, she will bring the entire colony along either on her stomach, her back or trailing behind her, depending upon the spinaraks' age. It is remarkably easy to train ariados to defecate outside in captivity. This is also a chance for exercise, especially if the walk goes on somewhat longer than is strictly necessary. Ariados are very fond of long night walks and can be taught to hold a leash on one of their back legs.

Ariados will attempt to build webs almost anywhere they go. These can be difficult to clean up, even with special web dissolving fluids (which can be rather expensive). It is best to keep ariados in their pokéball when staying in an indoor space you don't own, or an outdoor space where you aren't allowed to leave webs (check the rules or ask the owner everywhere you camp).

Ariados don't mind their pokéballs in the day; spinarak prefer them. Ariados also don't mind their pokéballs at night so long as they are also allowed a walk and given food as bribery.

Ālìduōsī and xiànqiú are generally calmer and lower maintenance. The exact diet they are fed in captivity is a trade secret, but it is known that they are omnivorous and that the plants in their diet are the key to the texture and quality of their silk. They seldom leave their webs but will defecate in a nearby receptacle. To learn more information, visit the Ālìduōsī Museum on Melemele Island near Plantation Point.

Neither species hibernates in Alola due to the warm temperatures. If the ariados is taken out of the Commonwealth during the winter or late fall, they may attempt to do so. This is a perfectly natural behavior. Consult a more specialized guide on insect hibernation for more details.

Illness

Insect diseases, especially parasitic diseases, are notably difficult to cure as much of modern medicine revolves around killing insects and other simple creatures. Due to their relationship to ālìduōsī, ariados diseases have some chance of being curable by at least one veterinarian in Alola's larger cities. The most common symptoms of disease are red patches appearing behind the ariados' stinger, the ariados obsessively scratching some portion of its body, refusing food for more than three days, defects in their slik, an abrupt change in fecal color or consistency without a corresponding change in diet, or an abrupt change in temperament. If an ariados in Alola attempts to hibernate by retreating for a long period into a secluded, dark area that is not their own web, that could also be a sign of illness.

Consult a veterinarian as soon as any of these symptoms are observed.

Evolution

Spinarak grow to their full size over the course of roughly eight months for males and ten for females. There are no particularly rapid growth spurts or other abrupt changes involved in the transition. The formal demarcation line between spinarak and ariados is when their back legs grow long enough to touch each other.

Ālìduōsī grow to full size from xiànqiú in roughly six months. The formal demarcation line of evolution is the same as it is for spinarak and ariados.

Battle

Ālìduōsī are far more valuable as livestock than battlers and no one has ever seriously used one in a major competitive circuit. When they must defend themselves from battles they use their hooked and somewhat pointed legs, especially the ones on their back, to defend themselves. They mostly avoid combat by staying inside of their tough, sticky webs.

Spinarak and ariados suffer in battling from being ambush predators. In the wild the success or failure of their hunts is usually determined before the prey even knows the predator is there. They are not particularly bulky and their mandible strength and venom are nothing special for a pokémon. Ariados have a very tiny niche in competitive battling as laying the strongest webs and being able to project them up to a meter or two when well trained. If ariados were fast enough to dodge hits and weave around the battlefield to reduce their opponent's mobility, as galvantula can, they might be useful. The same would be true if they were bulky enough to move unimpeded regardless of what their opponent did to stop them. As neither is the case for ariados, their use on the circuits has been almost entirely confined to rising bug trainers who haven't had the time, money or experience to train something better suited for competitive battling.

The headstone ariados has seen some usage in the few leagues where they are allowed. Their venom is one of the most painful and debilitating of any pokémon and they're decently fast, which makes them an excellent wallbreaker against stall teams with bulky but weak pokémon. However, their venom's potency has led to them being banned virtually everywhere. The notable exceptions are their native Johto and Kanto (they are traditional), Australia (everyone carries at least three venom counters per team in the Uluru Conference and Pacific Invitational Tournament), and some of the less established or regulated leagues (kills are an accepted part of the game).

On the island challenge, where most opponents won't hit quite so hard, ariados can still be useful. They are best used not as attackers in their own right but as web layers that create traps around the battlefield until they can no longer safely continue. Ariados silk is quite flammable unless chemically treated after production, but it is very durable and sticky. This makes it difficult for opponents to remove without a fire-type, and in a fair few arenas lighting the battlefield on fire creates more trouble than it's worth. Of course, this will also slow down your own team members. But, they can be trained to navigate around the silk lines; your opponent will likely have no such training. Be mindful that this does not particularly hinder most birds or pokémon that would never land on the battlefield anyway. More than one bug trainer has made the mistake of laying down ariados webs just to find out that it makes it even easier for an opponent with a bird to sweep them.

Acquisition

Spinarak can be captured, adopted or purchased with a Class I license. They are most commonly found in the forests of Melemele around Route 1. They can also be found in Alolan Rainforests National Preserve on Akala Island and the areas around Malie City, including The Malie Gardens. Ariados require a Class II license to capture, adopt or purchase. They are found in the same locations as spinarak.

Possession of a xiànqiú and ālìduōsī, requires a Class V license and a permit, which in turn requires a federal background check and security clearance. They are treated as resources vital to national security and their ownership is heavily guarded as such.

Breeding

Two ariados that cross paths during breeding season (early spring) will engage in a courtship ritual consisting of a mock fight, displaying their webs to each other and the male presenting his prospective mate with food. Should his efforts be successful, the female will take him back to her nest and mate with him. She will later lay her eggs into a special cavity located just behind the legs on his back. As the spinarak are born they will emerge from their eggs slightly larger than a quarter in diameter. They will eat the lining of the cavity for nutrition and, eventually, the rest of their father's body. Once there is almost nothing left to consume they will join their mother. Spinarak stay with their mother until they are roughly five months of age and roughly twenty-five centimeters long. At this point they will leave their nest and wander the canopies until they evolve and begin forming a more permanent web. The female ariados will usually die of natural causes shortly after her offspring set off on their own.

Captive breeding of ariados essentially requires the death of the male. Attempts to strategically withdraw the male after the eggs have been fertilized angers both parties as the females become temporarily hostile towards humans and the males enter a suicidal depression. The female will usually eat her own eggs if not allowed to lay them inside of the male. Breeding is initiated in captivity by introducing a male ariados to a female with a well-established web. There will be a fight and, should they choose to mate, the rest of the process goes on much as it does in the wild. The female should be allowed to stay in the same place until her young are at least a month old.

Ālìduōsī breeding is a trade and state secret revealed by Gracidea Clothiers or the Untied States government on a need-to-know basis.

Subspecies

Aside from the Yangtze and Alolan ariados, four other subspecies have been documented.

Two are native to central Japan. The Johtonian ariados more closely resembles the Yangtze ariados than the Alolan one in size and coloration. They are both poisonous and venomous and function primarily as ambush predators that eat anything unfortunate enough to collide with their relatively thin and translucent web. They do not sleep or rest on their web and prefer to wait in the nearby canopy to maximize the chances something accidentally sticks themselves in their trap.

The headstone ariados is a domestic breed created from the Johtonian ariados (itself created from feral Yangtze ariados). They have far more potent venom than any other subspecies but die shortly after stinging an opponent. The headstone ariados is the smallest of all subspecies, with females only growing up to 0.5 meters. They were bred and maintained by secretive clans of assassins to quietly dispatch enemies in a reliable and reliably painful manner. Spinarak are both rather easy to train and quite small, making it easy for them to infiltrate even highly guarded structures and sting their prey before crawling a short distance to die in a hidden place. There is an antivenom for the headstone ariados but the clan that domesticated them refused to give up the recipe, even under heavy international pressure following the death of the Kalosian Prime Minister to a headstone ariados sting on a visit to Saffron City.

An antivenom has since been independently created by researchers in Australia. With their preferred weapon suddenly blunted, the remnants of the headstone clans as well (as their modern successors, the Yakuza and Team Rocket) have begun selling headstone ariados to collectors, researchers and foreign governments for a hefty price.

The European ariados population is a result of a 12th century king's attempt to breed ariados for their silk, as he could not obtain ālìduōsī. The experiment failed, both due to the extreme difficulty of weaving with ariados silk and the presence of talonflame. The survivors ultimately retreated to caves, away from talonflame. They primarily trap and hunt bats and small rodents. The European ariados only grows up to 0.6 meters in length and their eyes have atrophied to near-uselessness. They sense the world almost exclusively through the vibrations on their webs.

The fourth subspecies is native to the forests of Northeastern Australia. They are the descendants of another early attempt to breed the Yangtze Ariados on Pacific Islands, after substantial crossbreeding with local insect and spider species. The Queensland ariados are classified as dual bug- and ground- types and build their webs on the forest floor alongside an elaborate system of hidden pits and trapdoors. Unlike the Johtonian, European and Alolan ariados, they will happily eat any humans that fall into their traps. Their reluctance to go above the earth's surface makes them difficult prey for birds, but native and introduced fire types such as pyrotreemata and heatmor are quite happy to burn their nests and eat them as they flee.


	10. Lopunny

**Lopunny (Buneary)**

Overview

Lopunny is a domesticated descendant of European diggersby. It is believed that they were first domesticated in what is now Germany and were, at least originally, much bulkier and not nearly as cute. But generations of selective breeding produced several different breeds of rabbit pokémon. Lopunny is by far the lithest of the diggersby descendants. They were selectively bred, originally by serfs for the quality of their fur and utility in defending the home.

Lopunny reliably shed and their fur is very warm when fashioned into a coat. Of course, in the old days few people bothered to work with the shed hair. Instead they were killed and eaten during harsh winters to provide both meat and pelts. Pokémon rights movements during The Enlightenment often targeted this practice both due to the death of a pokémon involved and, if only subconsciously, its association with the lower classes. This resulted in the passing of bans or restrictions upon lopunny care by several European monarchs and nobles (as well as the Galish parliament). The Kalosian Revolutionaries used the ban there as one of their arguments against the monarchy.

As the use of pelts taken from a live lopunny was banned, a handful of artisans began to experiment with making coats from shed fur. The result became a form of conspicuous consumption and a lopunny a symbol of wealth. The landed gentry of Europe largely scoffed at the coats as the vulgar business class showing off. Due in part to

Lopunny almost never grow their proper winter coat in Alola, but the association has still made them popular among a strange mix of businessmen, youth, and recent migrants from the mainland. As a result they can be easily obtained from pet shops and small feral herds descended from escaped or released pets. They are tame, pretty and surprisingly fierce in battle.

Physiology

Buneary and lopunny are both classified as pure normal-types. The challenges to this designation are mostly from a taxonomical school that argues domestic breeds should retain the typing of their wild counterparts. Mega lopunny is recognized as a dual normal- and fighting-type. This designation also has some opposition from purists who argue that mega evolutions cannot undergo a type change, but this school of thought has substantially diminished in influence over the years as mega evolution has been more widely studied.

Buneary are bipeds with two layers of fur. One is cream colored and very fluffy. This coats their bottom half as well as the tips of their ears. The other layer is dark brown and covers the majority of their upper half. They have two dots of cream colored fur over their eyes resembling eyebrows. Buneary ears can be half as long as their body. These ears do contain muscles, however they are nowhere as powerful as their equivalent stage in the diggersby line. For the most part they are used for emergency self-defense and balance with their arms and legs (or, more typically, their parents' arms and legs) doing the heavy lifting. Because of the musculature of their ears, their hearing is somewhat less adept than you might expect.

Lopunny are more slender than their juvenile form and the positioning of their fur layers is less even and predictable. Lopunny usually have cream fur beneath the knee, around their arms and across most of their ears. The eyebrow spots on buneary become large crests by the ears that can be up to 20 centimeters long.

Lopunny have proportionally longer legs, arms and ears with stronger muscles in all of them. However, due to centuries of selective breeding and the inbreeding that accompanies it, they have somewhat fragile bones. Lopunny heal faster than most mammalian pokémon but their relative frailty means that they seldom pick fights and prefer to pull their punches whenever it is safe to do so (see Mega Evolution).

At various times in the year, buneary and lopunny have different fur layer configurations. During the winter and in colder climates they have more of the cream fur. In the summer they shed almost all of the cream fur and grow an entirely brown coat. In Alola lopunny tend to keep their summer coat year round. They still shed once a year, typically in early spring, and have a very thin brown coat for roughly one week until the thicker brown parts come back.

Lopunny grow up to 1.3 meters tall (with ears pointed straight down after the bend). They can weigh up to 30 pounds. Captive lopunny can live up to eight years; the life expectancy in feral populations is far lower.

Behavior 

Lopunny are herbivores and feral colonies tend to live in lightly forested areas near meadows. They use the trees for cover at night and leave to graze in the meadow during the day. One or more lopunny will always be standing sentry while the others eat to keep an eye and ear out for birds. When birds do try to take a lopunny, the bird often discovers how hard the rabbit can hit when its life is on the line. The sentry duty appears to serve primarily to deter newly arrived birds and to appease the rabbits' nerves.

Lopunny are very nervous creatures in the wild and have been observed moving in and out of panic attacks every few hours when in a group of fewer than five lopunny. In captivity they seldom have this problem and actually have a reputation for being one of the gentlest and calmest of the small normal-types. Having either a permanent home with a roof to retreat to or much larger creatures looking after them probably helps.

Lopunny sleep huddled together, even on the warmest summer nights. At least one is always awake. They sleep in shifts to relieve the night sentry. In captivity lopunny allowed to sleep near their trainer or larger pokémon tend to sleep through the night.

Like many other pokémon with fluffy white fur (ninetales, furfrou, cincinno), lopunny are somewhat obsessive with their grooming and can spend up to two hours a day maintaining their fur. They will allow trusted humans to groom them, although usually only in the form of petting or light brushing. A lopunny will almost never allow a torracat or incineroar to groom them. However, a wild incineroar lived with an adopted buneary (later lopunny) in Poni National Park for several years and the lopunny did allow his adopted parents to groom him.

Husbandry

Lopunny are easy-going pets that mostly take care of themselves. They also enjoy being around their trainer for most of the day. This gives them a reputation as a very good pokémon for young children or inexperienced trainers. There are still a few care guidelines to keep in mind.

As herbivores, lopunny require a mix of plants fed to them several times a day. The ideal diet for their health is a mix of oats and hay. These are most commonly sold in very large packs for farm pokémon but smaller lopunny-specific packs do exist in specialty pokémon supply stores or some larger Pokémon Centers. It is best to mix in some leafy green pokémon mixes. Lopunny adore clover and it can be a very effective treat or reward.

While a lopunny is shedding they should be provided with a safe, enclosed space and seldom disturbed. They seem to be self-conscious during this period and hate being seen by their trainer or other pokémon, especially by mammals with strict grooming regimens.

Lopunny very seldom bathe in water but may sometimes elect to do so. They should never be forced into this because, even if they have been bathed before, they may interpret it as a threat and lash out. An adult lopunny is strong enough to crack human bones if they aren't holding back.

While it is less obvious than with a diggersby or raticate, lopunny still need to be provided with logs or other hard objects to gnaw on to keep their teeth in check. If their teeth are frequently visible when the lopunny is not eating, this should be taken as a sign that they need to gnaw. Lopunny should also periodically be given scratching posts for their nails. Otherwise they will scratch furniture.

Lopunny are intelligent enough to understand several words and verbal commands. While not strictly hierarchal in the wild they are rather easy to tame so long as a trainer is providing a safe place, cuddles and food. They can be trained to use a litter mat or box. While lopunny prefer to live inside full time but, provided they have a cage to retreat into, they can live in backyards. Very few lopunny tolerate pokéballs, unless they are trained with a high quality pokéball when very young.

Never grab a lopunny too quickly or wake up a sleeping lopunny by touch as they may lash out.

Lopunny are sometimes nervous around new carnivores or birds. Never leave them alone with even a very tame pokémon in these categories until they have been given a few weeks to acclimate to each other.

Lopunny sleep through most of the night and still take several hours worth of naps during the day. Buneary are more active but still somewhat lethargic. They prefer to sleep while cuddled against their trainer or a trusted, fluffy pokémon. If this is not possible, stuffed animals will sometimes work.

Illness

The most common problem for pet lopunny, aside from overgrown teeth are hairballs (or the lack thereof). Lopunny are sometimes unable to vomit up hair they consume while grooming and it can mat in their stomach and block up their digestive system. Medication or even surgery are usually needed to deal with this.

Battling lopunny often break their bones. They heal well enough that with a simple splint and either time inside of a healing machine or heal ball, or a long rest outside of one, the bone will usually be restored. It will still break again more easily in the future. Lopunny should be retired from battling after a few serious breaks and allowed to live out the rest of their life as either a backyard or house pet. If this is not possible they should be put up for adoption.

Evolution

Buneary naturally grow up into lopunny over the course of roughly fifteen months. The formal demarcation line between buneary and lopunny is the growth of cream fur around their forepaws.

Mega lopunny are roughly the same height as normal lopunny and the few centimeters of growth observed can be attributed to changes in posture. Lopunny undergo relatively few physical changes at all when they evolve. The most notable change is the transformation of their ears from large, muscular pseudo-limbs into long whip-like instruments that are no longer either prehensile or useful for hearing. Lopunny lose their cream coat and gain a very thin brown- and black-patterned coat across their entire body.

The difference in speed and strength observed comes from psychological changes. Mega lopunny are unable to either feel pain or care about injuries, including self-inflicted ones. This gives them the ability to exert far more force than even a truly desperate baseline lopunny would. Incredibly dangerous offensive opponents, they are also some of the most fragile pokémon commonly used in the international battling scene. Mega evolution of a lopunny requires a Class V license and a one month cool down period with no battling whatsoever between uses in combat.

Battle 

As mentioned above, mega lopunny are one of the best examples of the glass cannon archetype in competitive battling. They enjoy widespread use in the European, American, Australian and international circuits. In the United States they are one of the most useful permitted mega evolutions and, even if they're fragile, they breed and grow quickly enough to be considered replaceable. In battle they rely upon powerful kicks and strikes from their whip-like ears. They can outspeed some of the large dragons and beat all but the most powerful of physical walls into submission. However, one good hit is usually enough to take them out of the fight.

Normal lopunny enjoy far less usage. Their ease of care gives them some use among relatively new trainers but their fragility and frankly unexceptional power and speed prevents them from gaining widespread usage.

All of that is true. It's also true that on the island challenge where very hard hitters are comparatively rare until the (optional) Elite Four and Champion battles, lopunny's fraility usually isn't a massive problem. The species is easy to raise before and after starting the challenge and have become a common non-traditional starter. They are powerful enough to reach the fourth island trials without many difficulties, although the last few steps might cause them some trouble.

Lopunny fight primarily through simple kicks. As normal-types they are capable of learning a fair few elemental attacks through TMs and special training, but their energy reserves aren't deep enough for their projectile attacks to do much more than sting. Their fighting style is basic and easy to teach, but it's also quite effective against most opponents.

Very durable physical walls and most birds counter lopunny. A handful of pokémon that hit fast and very hard can also take them out in one hit, but these are somewhat rare on the island challenge.

Buneary fight in much the same way as lopunny but with less power (and faster healing). Their ears are proportionally stronger relative to their legs and arms which makes attacks utilizing them a decent option for early battles.

Acquisition

There are feral lopunny herds on Route 1 and in Poni Island National Park. Capture from both herds is permitted without restriction and requires a Class I license for buneary and a Class II license for lopunny.

It is easier to just adopt them from the many shelters that have excess buneary and lopunny or buy them from breeders who specialize in the species. The licensing requirements for adoption and purchase are the same as those for capture. One caveat: many shelter lopunny are retired battlers. They can be useful for training other team members but they should not be used on the island challenge due to their fragile health.

Breeding

Lopunny mate during the late winter and females give birth to a litter of three to five buneary in the early spring. They will stick very closely to their parents for the next seven months and stay near them until or after their evolution. It is not particularly hard to breed lopunny in captivity. Put an unrelated male and a female together for long enough and they will mate. Don't try and separate parents from children for six months as this is a good way to wind up with an upset lopunny, which usually means at least one broken bone in either the trainer or the pokémon.

Subspecies 

There are a handful of different breeds of domesticated diggersby, as well as diggersby themselves. The latter is technically considered a different pokémon rather than a subspecies or breed and will be excluded here. Most lopunny breeds vary primarily in the thickness and color of their hair, their body size or how slender or bulky they are. They possess few substantial dietary, typing or anatomical differences. Most are entirely used in agriculture for either fur or meat. Consult a specialist guide or a breeder (many breeders around Paniola Town raise lopunny as either their primary species or a secondary one) for more information.


	11. Malamar

**Malamar (Inkay)**

Overview

The ocean floor comprises roughly 70% of the Earth's surface. Humans have visited less than 1% of it in person and only surveyed roughly 5% of it with unmanned research vessels. What we know of its life comes entirely from these tiny glimpses of areas that are usually selected because they are geologically interesting. Most of what we know about life in the abyssalplelagic zone of the ocean comes from trawls which naturally select for slow and stationary creatures in and around the very bottom layer.

But we get a glimpse of what life is like far beneath the surface every single night. The largest migration on Earth (measured by both biomass and number of organisms) occurs not in the skies or on the plains, but in the sea.

Sunlight is the source of most of the ocean's bioenergy, with the remainder coming from chemosynthesis around a small number of hydrothermal vents. Photosynthesis is only viable where there is light and light is only present in a small portion of the ocean's volume. But light can mean death. The abundant phytoplankton lead to an equal if not larger number of zooplankton to feed on them, which are in turn fed upon by everything from minnows to ship-sized behemoths. And those creatures also have predators. The surface has almost all of the food, but it also has almost all of the predators. What is a small oceanic creature to do?

The answer for many is to live in the ocean's suburbs, the zone just beneath the light, during the day. And at every sunset those creatures rise to feed on the resting organisms or phytoplankton at the surface. And every sunrise they slink back down to the depths as the residents wake up.

Malamar are a deep sea enigma that have never been captured or even seen alive in the depths and very seldom appear on the surface. The only proof of their existence comes from deep scars on surfacing wailord, bloated corpses washing up on beaches and inkay raised and evolved in captivity (as will be noted below, these captive-raised malamar are not particularly useful for research purposes).

By contrast, inkay are plentiful enough on the surface to be a reliable draw for tourists across their range. During the night, that is. Inkay are almost never seen during the day as they sleep down in the depths.

Malamar are more difficult to care for than any pokémon discussed previously in this guidebook. They are also powerful hypnotists capable of dishing out some of the hardest hits of any predator. Trainers looking for a husbandry challenge with high rewards can hardly do better than training an inkay.

Physiology

All evolutionary stages of the line are currently classified by the Department of Agriculture as dual psychic- and dark-types. The dark typing is heavily disputed. The top contenders for a secondary typing are water due to their habitat and use of water pulses for propulsion, bug due to their anatomy, and flying due to their ability to levitate above the surface and use of air for propulsion. Malamar are exceptionally difficult for psychics to interface with, much less read or control. Proponents of the dark typing hold this as evidence of it. Opponents hold that so long as triple typings are disallowed, pokémon that fit the criteria for three or more typings should be given the two they fit best.

Inkay are very similar to surface cephalopod pokémon such as octillery and tentacruel in physiology. Their body is composed of two core parts. The first is made up of a translucent, white, hat-like bulb on their head. Pink flesh is visible through the head containing four yellow dots spaced at equal intervals. Two long tentacles that extend slightly beyond their lower tentacles reach down from the headpiece. The headpiece itself contains an elaborate system of chambers for water, air and other fluids and gasses that is used to raise inkay to the surface and lower them back down to the depths.

The rest of their body is colored a dark blue. It terminates in six short tentacles that resemble a skirt when they are held close together. Inkay have two complex eyes on their face with a small pink feature between them. This, contrary to popular belief, is not an inkay's beak. They do not eat from it and instead use it to ward off predators who might attack the eyes. The inkay's real beak is hidden amidst their tentacles. It is roughly half as long as the tentacles themselves. Near it are three valves they use for filtering water, releasing waste and propulsion.

The tentacled portion of malamar is nearly identical to that of inkay, although it is somewhat larger and a darker of blue on the outside (the inner bits near the beak stay roughly the same shade). They also gain an additional two tentacles. Malamar's headpiece grows far larger until it is roughly 1.5 times as long as the bottom tentacles fully extended. The inner pink flesh becomes a dark, nearly black, shade of purple and malamar gains two more lights, stacked in three rows of two. These lights are visible from any angle. Two ridges on the top of an inkay's head grow into functional legs. It is unclear what the purpose of these legs are in the deep but they are used to balance on land on the surface. Malamar's two arm tentacles grow to lengths exceeding the rest of their body combined and can be held down to form two more legs or arms when on land or extended towards their beak in the water to form powerful weapons for defense and offense. Their arms are tipped with axe-like blades sharp enough to seriously wound a wailord by either slashing blood vessels or puncturing their air bladders.

Inkay and malamar use bioluminescence to create elaborate patterns. These are used for communication between members of the species, to calm down predators with hypnotic patterns, or to transfix prey long enough to be slashed open and eaten. These light patterns work on most pokémon and animals, including humans. Most of malamar's carapace is composed of tissue that forms their nervous system and they are highly intelligent creatures capable of figuring out complex puzzles in seconds. They also possess telekinetic capabilities. Whether or not they have pure telepathy or just use their light patterns for hypnosis (or if there's a meaningful difference at all) is disputed.

Malamar are sexually dimorphic and their maximum size varies widely between captive and wild specimens. All measurements given below are from the tip of the carapace to the end of their arms. Captive females grow up to 2 meters and captive males grow up to roughly 1.7 meters. Wild females can grow up to seven meters and males can grow up to six meters. Captive malamar can live up to five years. Evidence suggests that wild malamar do not live much, if any, longer.

Behavior

It isn't terribly clear what wild inkay are up to during their daily rest. They chafe at and can usually deconstruct or detach external tracking devices. When injected their behavior appears to be altered considerably for a few days. On the surface they tend to swim in troupes of roughly twenty inkay. They form a grid where the closest inkay is roughly ten meters away from the next one. They move in close synchronization while flashing their lights to confuse and captivate predators and prey alike. Genetic testing suggests members of a troupe are all siblings.

Inkay are capable of levitating over the water and surviving in moist air for up to five hours at a time. They are well known for the mid-air flips they perform while moving. It is disputed whether or not these are accidental, intentional with a clear biological purpose, or just part of their naturally curious nature.

Inkay are intensely clever and often distracted by new and interesting environments or puzzles. This holds true for wild inkay who will sometimes put themselves in possible danger to investigate something of interest to them. They consider machines of interest and are often cut up by the propellers of boats. The boat tours that bring tourists close to inkay troupes often kill several as a side effect.

Inkay primarily hunt fish (both pokémon and non-pokémon). Wishiwashi are a favorite of theirs in Alola and they are one of the few natural predators of wishiwashi. They can get away with picking on individuals without facing the wrath of the collective because their lights make the level of coordination necessary to school nearly impossible.

No one knows exactly what depths malamar frequent or what their wild diet is. It is assumed from captive specimens that they eat large sea pokémon and non-pokémon fish but this has never been confirmed in the wild. Attempts to release captive malamar to observe their behavior in the wild tend to go poorly. They tear off mechanical trackers quickly, almost never return to their trainers, and malamar with inobtrusive trackers inside of them (that they don't manage to get out anyway) appear to die shortly after release. The leading theory is that malamar are somewhat social creatures in the wild who teach vital skills to other malamar. Without this upbringing, newly released malamar struggle to survive.

Wild malamar almost never surface. Captive malamar can and do stand on their main tentacles and the expanded carapace ridges and are capable of levitating a few centimeters off the ground and surviving in air for several hours. Notably, their air sacs and carapace ridges appear to be proportionally larger and stronger than their wild counterparts. It might be physiologically impossible for a wild malamar to stand, float or survive on land.

Husbandry

Inkay require a seafood diet. They aren't very picky at all on what they eat and are fine with crustacean meat (crustaceans with the shells still attached double as a toy), fish, mussels and even the flesh of other cephalopods. There is some evidence that wild malamar engage in cannibalism; in captivity this has only occurred in very cramped aquariums or between very underfed malamar. Inkay prefer fresh seafood to pellets and mixes but will eat those in a pinch.

Inkay should be kept in saltwater about as often as they are kept outside of it. Some pokéballs can meet this requirement. Consult a specialty pokéball or fish supplies store for more details.

Inkay are incredibly intelligent creatures and will require either frequent access to toys or an equally intelligent playmate. They appear to be motivated by curiosity alone and the presence or absence of food at the end of the puzzle doesn't seem to affect their willingness to solve it. On the flip side, inkay in aquariums are incredibly gifted escape artists and their nimble tentacles and telekinesis allow them to frequently break out of supposedly unescapable cages. Inkay are capable of contorting their body to fit through any space bigger than their beak. In the Aquarium de Ambrette an inkay was filmed waiting for a security guard to pass by and then swimming through the filtration system into the adjacent fish tank, eating the fish inside and then moving back to her own tank when it was time for the next security sweep. They are capable of learning rules but they tend to see rules as a constraint that they want to get around for the pure joy of bypassing it without getting caught. This makes inkay impossible to tame and difficult to keep in line. The best solution is generally to continuously present them with new and interesting environments or highly intelligent playmates. Brionne are very good for this purpose, as are slowking and oranguru. The latter two have much less energy than an inkay which can sometimes become a problem.

Inkay are not particularly cuddly. When they do run their tentacles over a trainer it is often in either an attempt to steal something, to apologize if they get caught breaking the rules (they quickly learn that humans become more lenient when happy and that contact induces happiness), or to figure out their trainer's puzzling anatomy.

Inkay are most active at night in and out of aquaria. In community tanks, especially those with large pokémon, inkay tend to seek shelter for the entire day and then come out at night.

Inkay can be housetrained but this is a rule they will often seek to break. Their waste is a stream of dark liquid.

Malamar are often best approached on a case by case basis or not raised at all for all but the most experienced of trainers and public aquariums. Inkay tend to have similar personalities to each other and relatively few individual quirks. Malamar are moody and wildly different from each other in temperament and behavior. They tend to hide during the day in public aquariums and then prey upon other tankmates at night even if food is very explicitly provided for them, except when they are given more food than they could possibly eat and it can only be accessed through a very challenging puzzle. They are also fiercely territorial over their preferred corner of the tank and will seldom leave it except to hunt. Curiously, captive malamar seem to ignore each other entirely even if they were in the same troupe in the wild and raised together in captivity.

Malamar are easily bored by humans and will often seek comeuppance against the people who control or restrict them. This usually takes the form of hypnosis. Inkay will almost never hypnotize a human unless they believe themselves to be at immediate risk. Malamar have no such reservations. When training a malamar it is very important to have frequent therapy sessions, ideally with a telepath, and keep a diary several times a day on your emotional state and the subject of your thoughts. Malamar brainwashing tends to be accompanied by a general boost in mood, a detachment from other humans and pokémon and a mild obsession with obtaining fish. Some malamar trainers become obsessed with battles and competition; others abruptly come to resent them. Malamar training is really best left to public aquaria, psychics capable of recognizing telepathic assault, and trainers formidable enough to earn their malamar's respect.

See Evolution for more details on what to do when your inkay approaches evolution.

Illness 

The most common illness for inkay is dehydration. This happens when their water sac runs low. Dehydration can be reversed if the pokémon is quickly submerged in salt water and allowed to stay there until they float out on their own. The symptoms of dehydration include drastically lowered activity, general apathy, and a refusal to eat. A substantial increase or decrease in the frequency or volume of their waste discharges should also be noted. For any symptom other than those with obvious causes, dehydration should be assumed.

If hydration does not solve the problem, consult a veterinarian.

Evolution

Inkay tend to evolve around their third birthday, although the amount of battling they partake in can move this back or forward. It is suspected that the actual catalyst for their evolution is reaching a threshold of telepathic activity across their lifetime.

Inkay tend to become lethargic and eat far more when they approach evolution. They will also all but stop releasing waste. This should be the point where trainers who do not want to deal with a malamar (or do not have the credentials to do so) should release their inkay back into the ocean. Inkay in the wild evolve by swimming deep beneath the surface and never reemerging. In public aquariums they usually seek out either the deepest or most protected spot in the aquarium and stay absolutely still for days on end as they grow and change. The water pressure and available light both appear to affect the amount of time it takes to evolve and the size they grow to.

Trainers who wish to evolve their inkay and then keep the malamar, and have the proper licensing to do so, should work out an arrangement with a local zoo, aquarium or rehabilitation center to loan out a pressurized, dark, and secluded space. Inkay should be provided as much food as they will eat during the runup to evolution. Malamar will often be very clumsy during their first couple of weeks after evolving, especially on land, but they should never be laughed at. They tend to lash out when they believe their intelligence or agility is being insulted. Malamar have a rather formidable arsenal for lashing out with.

Battle

Malamar are most often used as an anti-metagame pick on competitive battling teams and their popularity waxes and wanes depending on what sort of threats are popular at any given time. In metagames (regional or international) dominated by psychic types, malamar usually become quite popular. These scenes tend to attract psychic trainers who have an easier time raising malamar. The cephalopods are very good at countering psychic-types. The same goes for metagames with large pools available as an arena pick as malamar are some of the best pokémon for taking down large water-types such as wailord and miltoic in the water.

Malamar are most easily countered by bug types that can break their concentration with sonic attacks and retaliate with powerful slashes that can tear through their skin and seriously injure them. Malamar and inkay are vulnerable to cuts but they can patch them up easily in saltwater given a few hours (or days for particularly severe wounds). Pokémon that can present puzzles or traps mid-fight can often confuse or distract them as they obsess over how to 'solve' the problem, something ordinarily best left to the trainer while the pokémon reacts to the immediate problems at hand.

Malamar are a mix of arena control and tech fighters. They are superb at setting traps twisting the battlefield around with attacks like trick room. Malamar also have very sharp claws and can move quickly in short bursts by releasing air or water jets (this works triply well in the water). They function like a mix between primarina's arena control and golisopod's hit and run styles, although they aren't quite as good in either role. Still, they are one of the few trapsetters that can keep up with and even knock out the glass cannons, nukes, or set-up sweepers that usually counter them.

Only psychics should attempt to use a malamar on the island challenge.

Inkay fight rather differently than malamar. Without sharp claws they struggle to end the battle quickly. As such, they must use light patterns to pacify the opponent and levitation to avoid them. Tricks such as protect and trick room can prolong this phase of the fight. When the opponent is subdued they can be hit with a barrage of ranged or melee attacks without much fear of retaliation. Be mindful that if opponents are allowed to switch out this can disrupt the inkay's hard work. Inkay are particularly useful against totems as the core of the battle is one very powerful pokémon that can stay on the field a long time. Provided that inkay can take a hit or two they are quite useful for draining the totem and setting them up for a harder hitter to take out.

Acquisition

Inkay require a Class III license to adopt, capture, or purchase. Troupes are found in Kala'e Bay almost every night. They can sometimes be seen off of Route 1, Route 2 or Hau'oli City. There are rare sightings of inkay around Fini Beach and the eastern shoreline of Poni Island. They are somewhat rare in captivity, especially among trainers or suppliers who might be willing to part with them. It is easiest to simply capture an inkay.

Capture of a malamar is illegal due to the difficulty of finding one, the possibility that they are quite rare, the difficulty of taming one, and the simple fact that no captured malamar has survived for longer than a week in captivity. Possession of a malamar requires a Class V license for the general population and a Class III license for psychics who earn a PsiTest score of 125 or higher.

Breeding

Malamar have never been bred in captivity or been observed reproducing in the wild.

Subspecies

There is some argument that, due to their size and physiological differences, wild malamar are not the same subspecies as captive malamar. The argument goes that there is a benthic inkay that never surfaces at all that evolves into deep sea malamar. The inkay that come to the surface are a different subspecies entirely and the malamar known in captivity are a subspecies that fares so poorly in the wild that they are almost never seen. The main argument against this idea is that there is no reason for inkay to undergo the costly process of evolution if they would almost certainly die immediately afterwards. There are also only very minimal genetic differences between captive and wild malamar. As such it is generally accepted that captive and wild malamar.

However, there still are three accepted subspecies. The malamar in Alola are Pacific malamar that generally prefer equatorial surface waters. They live all across the equatorial Pacific but are most abundant near islands and coasts due to the greater abundance of prey.

Atlantic Malamar live in the temperate portions of the North Atlantic. Coastal sightings have declined considerably since the 1700s. The leading theory is that industrial whaling and fishing operations depleted malamar's prey. Atlantic inkay have somewhat duller colors than Pacific inkay and are 20% larger on average.

Southern malamar are the largest subspecies by far. One female that washed up on the coast of New Zealand's South Island measured fifteen meters from the tip of her head to the end of her arms. They are more heavily armored than the other subspecies with thick, leathery skin covering their head. The Atlantic and Pacific malamar have weaker and fewer suction cups than the average cephalopod. By contrast, the southern malamar has relatively long leg tentacles lined with powerful suction cups and sharp barbs. It is speculated that southern malamar use the threat of surface level wounds to deter opponents from going for their eyes while their long, brutally sharp arm tentacles go for the kill.

Southern inkay are pure white across their entire body; southern malamar are pure black. Outside of their coloring, southern inkay also require very cold waters and can only surface for one or two minutes at a time. The subspecies also appears to be less playful than Atlantic inkay, which in turn are far less curious than Pacific inkay.

It is difficult to study the southern malamar and inkay. The farthest north they have ever been recorded was Tasmania. They are only common in the seas around Antarctica. Southern inkay are shy and tend to run away from approaching research vessels or humans. Southern malamar have only been held in captivity three times. The Vermillion Aquarium displayed one for nine days in 1971 after one of the inkay in their cold waters exhibit evolved. The new malamar quickly killed everything else in its tank, broke the glass while visitors watched, and proceeded to slash through or drown two hundred and eighty-six people before dying of asphyxiation. SeaWorld evolved one in 2006; while it did not kill any one, the new malamar refused to eat and died six weeks after evolution. Mwasaa binti Musa evolved one of her southern inkay in 2009. The malamar, Akil, listened to Musa's commands and even battled for her in a handful of competitive matches. However, in one match it tried to attack the opposing trainer after dispatching one of his pokémon. Akil broke the shields and came within a fraction of a second of succeeding in the time it took Musa to recall him. His behavior rapidly deteriorated and he was eventually put down.


	12. Zoroark

**Zoroark (Zorua)**

Overview

Every North American culture, from the Mississippians to the Dakota to the Aztecs, had a variation on the same myth. Sometimes a child would abruptly stop talking in the night. As they grew up they would slowly start talking again, albeit with less skill and frequency than they had before. Some would display magical abilities. Galar also had a variant of the changeling tale. The difference is, the stories from North America had a very real basis.

All subspecies of zoroark have the same outcome (illusions) but approach it in very different ways (telepathy, hydrokinesis, pyrokinesis). This would ordinarily suggest an extreme case of convergent evolution, but all three living subspecies are closely related.

What makes the species of particular interest to scientists is their intelligence. Zoroark are not the most intelligent pokémon. Nor are they the only ones capable of communicating in human speech (primarina, chatot and even some slowking can). Zoroark are interesting because of their ease of blending into human society and their desire to do so. Human children are often one of the first illusions a zorua learns to cast, even in the wild, and adult zoroark have been observed creating and maintaining a human identity for years. Changeling stories have been documented in the modern era in zoroark's remaining habitats. They break into residences, steal children and leave behind a zorua of their own. More than one zoroark has told researchers and police officers that this is to give their child a better shot at learning human behaviors.

It is unclear what exactly happens to the kidnapped human children. While it has long and widely been believed that the zoroark simply ate the babies, this may be untrue. Human children showing up on doorsteps or living alone (but healthily) in the wild are unusually common in zoroark habitats. The prevailing theories is that zoroark keep abducted children in their nest to teach human forms and behaviors to their other pups, or that they drop humans off elsewhere in an attempt to reduce the hostility towards their species.

For understandable reasons, zoroark were both hunted and worshipped in pre-Columbian North America. Sometimes the same culture did both. European settlers were unnerved by the zoroark, especially after some infiltrated their expeditions and came back to Europe with them. Witch hunts in the early United States were ostensibly aimed at getting rid of supposed zoroarks. One minister spearheading a witch hunt that killed twenty young women was himself revealed to be a zoroark upon his death.

Eventually European settlers nearly succeeded at driving zoroark extinct. Currently there are only two wild populations of zoroark in North America: one on the Olympic Peninsula and surrounding portions of British Columbia and Washington and the other near the California-Anahuac border.

Two of the three globally common subspecies, the Olympic and montane zoroark, are classified as having "significant populations" in Alola by the Department of Agriculture. However, montane zorua are neither reliably available to travelers or extremely important to Alolan society so they are relegated to the subspecies section of this entry. The rest will focus upon the Olympic zorua.

Physiology

Both zorua and zoroark are classified as pure dark types by the Department of Agriculture. This ruling is highly contested. Now is perhaps the best time to bring up the history of the dark typing. In the earliest attempts to group pokémon by typing, dark signified that the pokémon had a connection to satanic magic. The ruling has been controversial in the modern era and in the rest of the world for understandable reasons. However, the dark type has not been abolished both due to tradition and because it appears that there was something to the initial theory. While most scientists no longer view them as satanic, dark-types tend to have some general traits: they have the ablity to manipulate shadows, above average intelligence, a resistance to telepathy, and either some degree of malice towards humanity or shocking brutality. Zoroark fit all four categories.

Among researchers that acknowledge the dark-typing, it is almost universally recognized that zoroark are primarily dark types. The dominant dispute revolves around whether or not they should also have a water, flying, psychic, fairy or normal typing. Zoroark are hydrokinetic to a very limited degree. They use this to manipulate the air, which could suggest a water or flying type. This trick has a cursory resemblance to low level telekinesis and they are highly intelligent, which could support a psychic typing. Fairy-types are ordinarily tricksters and were often viewed as 'holy' pokémon. Zoroark have an extensive mythology tied to them and can be very friendly, even familial, to humans. They are undeniably tricksters. Normal implies versatility and a mastery of several elements. The authors of this guidebook take no particular position on the typing of the Olympic zoroark or zorua.

Zorua fur is primarily either grey or black, depending upon the individual. They have a typical quadrupedal vulpine build. The fur on their paws is red and they possess several red markings on their forehead. The skin of their eyelids is also red. Zorua have an unruly tuft of fur on top of their head that is red at the tips.

Zoroark are primarily bipedal with long and slender limbs and relatively weak muscles. Their claws are much longer and sharper than that of zorua and are colored blood red. Their fur is rather short across their entire body, except on their upper chest. Zoroark are most easily identifiable (when they aren't casting an illusion) by their mane. The mane of a fully grown zoroark is almost always bigger in volume than the rest of their body combined. It is bright red in color with black tufts and streaks throughout it. They generally keep an object, usually a pearl from a shellder or spoink, around the middle of their mane to keep their hair in some semblance of order. Their fur is coated in oils that they can control with their hydrokinesis so it doesn't encumber them as much as its bulk would suggest.

Zoroark can grow up to 1.7 meters and 55 kilograms in size, with males being somewhat larger than females on average. Zoroark live up to 60 years in captivity. Their wild lifespan is not well studied.

Behavior 

Olympic zoroark primarily cast their illusions through small-scale hydrokinesis. They use tiny water droplets to manipulate the air. This allows them to create and suppress sounds, bend, light and even move small objects and create tactile illusions. They can alter their secretions to create scent illusions. A particularly skilled zoroark can create an entire body out of faux-forcefields made of air and water, speak and look like a human, and even smell like one. While the bulk of the mane might seem like an obvious challenge for presenting as a human, zoroark can remove their bead and telekinetically weave the hairs around their body in a pinch.

The only real way to disrupt a zoroark's illusions is to hit their body with enough force to break the surface tension of the projection and force them to spend time and energy to put it back together. A hard, unexpected punch is usually sufficient to do this. There are other methods to bypass illusions as well. Longtime or skilled zoroark trainers can frequently identify zoroark from tells that they have difficulty explaining. Ultraviolet and infrared scanners, as well as thermal scanners, can usually bypass the illusion as they are targeted towards traditional human senses. As a note of caution, at least one zoroark has been able to beat all three of the above methods at different times (never simultaneously).

Zorua tend to be far less skilled at illusions and have a variety of simple tells from an inability to mimic voices or suppress their own to pixelated glitches to forgetting to cover up their tail. They are almost never skilled enough to replicate the scent of another creature.

Zoroark use illusions for a variety of purposes. In addition to infiltrating human society, they also use them to conceal their den and pups, imitate a harmless prey species to lure in a small predator, imitate a very large predator to scare away a mid-sized one, or for mating displays (see Breeding). Zorua generally use their illusions to either replicate very well-known species or confuse their opponent enough to cover a retreat.

It is difficult to research wild zoroark as they do not like being followed and typically shroud themselves in illusions. It is believed that the Olympic zoroark lives in groups of one to five adults and their young. Members frequently join and leave the pack and they do not have a particularly tight-knit social structure. Juvenile-only packs with an occasional unrelated adult providing protection or supervision are also somewhat common, particularly in areas outside of the Olympic peninsula where there are simply very few adults that live exclusively in the wild. This is the dominant model of zorua packs on Melemele and Akala, although there are semi-permanent adults in the Poni Island pack(s).

Zoroark and zorua are primarily ambush predators, although they will also go to the shores to hunt for shellfish meat and pearls. Slowpoke are a frequent target of theirs as the foxes don't mind getting wet, resist psychic attacks, can pick off the indigestible parts, and find that the tails taste quite good.

The species is nocturnal in the wild, although zoroark imitating humans will usually adjust to diurnal life.

Husbandry

Zoroark present a unique challenge among all of the pokémon in Alola. Some species have comparable intelligence to humans, such as primarina, and others often insist that they are superior via actions or telepathy (ninetales, metagross, slowking, oranguru). Zoroark are unique in their desire to be human. They will frequently take on the appearance of their trainer (or a gender flipped version of their trainer) at first and slowly make adjustments. They resent pokéballs and any sign of subjugation and will snap at their trainers, literally and metaphorically, if they get the impression that they are not viewed as equals. Their default human form will only be left for combat purposes or for illness or injury (see Illness). The species main goal when dealing with humans is not to obtain food or protection but to learn more about human appearances and behaviors. If they believe their trainer to be sufficiently kind they will often elect to stay with them when they decide their education is complete. Otherwise they will usually take their trainer's valuables and slink off into a crowd, never to be seen again.

Zorua will sometimes tolerate portable dog beds. Zoroark will not and demand a sleeping mat, cot, or something else equivalent to what their trainer has. Similarly, zorua will be willing to eat typical canine mixes or leftovers; zoroark will become spiteful if they don't have regular access to human food. Their digestive systems are similar enough to a human's that they can survive on a typical human diet with a little more protein. Zoroark can be reasoned with on finances to a degree but they will still demand a measure of equality in even the worst situations.

Unlike most canines, zoroark love water. They can bathe themselves with hydrokinesis or their tongue but they prefer to have access to baths or showers. All but the wealthiest of trainers will need to set limits on shampoo and water usage will need to be set early on.

Zoroark require scratching posts from time to time. Only very young or spiteful zorua will scratch up furniture. Adults will simply slink off to a forest to slash some tree bark if they are not provided with a scratching post. Zorua will use a litter box; zoroark are quite capable of using toilets.

The most important lessons for handling a zoroark are those you should have in kindergarten: be respectful, share your toys, and be willing to help others. Trainers who follow those rules often develop deep, even familial, relationships with their zoroark. This can help keep them sane and grounded on the trails of Alola and in the parts of life's journey that follow.

Illness

Zoroark can contract rabies and should be vaccinated within two weeks of capture or six weeks of birth.

Most zoroark illnesses and injuries affect their illusions in some way. Not all instances of a zoroark dropping their illusion are due to suffering. Sometimes zoroark drop their illusions for battle, for intimidation or for no clear reason at all. Zorua usually sleep with their illusion down and will often spend time in their default appearance around trainers they trust.

However, if a zorua spends more than three days without casting an illusion or a zoroark goes for more than one, they may be sick or injured. Ask the pokémon to create a human illusion to talk, or at least to write if they are capable of it. If they can't or won't, take them to a veterinarian. If they will take a human form, ask them earnestly and repeatedly if anything is wrong. Even if they insist that everything is fine, it might still be for the best to take them to a veterinarian for a cursory check. Zoroark are very good at spotting lies so don't try to conceal the real purpose of the visit from them.

Evolution

Zorua reach their full size around sixteen years of age. However, they can appear to grow much faster in captivity. Zorua with a devoted trainer become more skilled with human illusions and usually decide to match their trainer's age. This in turn forces them to think in more mature thought patterns, which has been shown to promote actual rapid brain development followed by physical development. Premature evolution has not been shown to have an adverse effect on lifespan and should not be encouraged or discouraged. Zoroark's manes continue to grow in length and volume until their death.

The formal demarcation line between zorua and zoroark is the selection of their first hair bead.

Battle

Zoroark are a niche pick in competitive battling for their mindgames. Even in leagues that announce each party's full team beforehand it can be difficult to know which pokémon is a zoroark. While this isn't terribly effective at the levels where one hit from almost any pokémon can knock out a zoroark's illusion, if not the zoroark itself, it is a useful tool in leagues that allow for counterswitching. A common tactic is initiating a switch against an opponent's fighting-weak pokémon while having your zoroark pose as a humanoid fighting type. This forces the opponent to gamble by either sending in a psychic type and risking a matchup against a zoroark or staying in and risking a beatdown from a fighting-type. A similar tactic applies to having your zoroark imitate a poison-type when fighting an opponent with at least one fairy, forcing them to decide whether or not to risk their fairy against what might be a real poison-type for the chance of annihilating a zoroark and gaining momentum.

Island challenge trials don't force either side to declare their pokémon beforehand, just the number they are bringing to battle. This gives zoroark a few rounds of confusion and setup against an opponent before the kahuna figures out the trick. Elite Four battles require declaring in advance (and allow both sides to freely switch) which makes the best zoroark tactics the ones described above. However, it should be noted that most opponents in the island challenge use monotype teams. This makes the utility of baiting out a pokemon less useful because the opponent will either have no fairy or psychic types (or bugs) to bait out, or will have so many that other factors will carry the battle.

Beyond illusions, zoroark have sharp claws and surprisingly potent shadow manipulation. They can also abuse illusion "glitches" to disorient opponents for a split second. This allows them to either begin or disrupt a combo, get in for a melee hit or get out of range of a melee fighter. Their signature tactic is using shadows to trip up opponents as they move and force them to hit the ground with their own force. As zoroark are rather light on musculature and natural defenses, this is probably their best way of safely dealing damage. They can also be taught a number of elemental tricks and disruption tactics to maximize their efficacy.

Acquisition

There are zorua packs around Route 5 and Route 1. Captures from the former are currently prohibited. Captures from the latter are presently allowed without restriction (beyond the requisite trainer rank) as zorua are viewed as an invasive species and a public safety risk. Capture, adoption or purchase of a zorua requires a Class I license.

Zorua are also found in the pack(s) in Poni Island National Park. There is often a single pack, but there are enough zoroark that they sometimes split off into smaller groups. Capture of zorua and zoroark is presently allowed inside the park without restriction with the requisite trainer rank.

Zoroark require a Class III license to purchase, adopt or capture.

Breeding

Zoroark are incredibly private about all stages of reproduction. What is known is that they have a very long courtship period (sometimes lasting years before procreation) and that a pair will typically only have one litter of six to twelve pups. Zoroark pregnancies last seven months. Pregnant zoroark will often be hesitant to create illusions, presumably due to the energy illusion formation requires. Male zoroarks will stay very close to their pregnant mates.

Both parents stay very close to their pups until they reach their full size. If one parent dies before the pups are fully grown the surviving parent will seek out another zoroark to assist in childrearing. If both die in the same incident the remaining zorua will band together into a pack. Sometimes another zoroark will take over parental duties, or at least begin to drop by every so often to check on their welfare and provide instruction. Both zorua packs in Alola were formed by orphaned litters that did not gain a steady parental figure but did find another zoura litter to merge with. The packs continue to take in stray zorua. At least one former pack member checks in on them from time to time.

Mated pairs usually split up when their children leave. Sometimes they will pursue a long-term homosexual partnership. Sometimes they will find an orphaned pack and assist in raising it or they will join a multi-zoroark group. Zoroark have also been observed finding a member of another species and entering into either a romantic or platonic partnership with them.

Zoroark will lay out their own boundaries and desires for privacy during reproduction and childrearing to their trainer. Sometimes they will wish to leave their trainer to find a mate and raise children. They should be allowed to do so. If forbidden from leaving, they will leave anyway but steal or destroy several of their trainer's possessions on the way out. A zoroark that amicably parts from their trainer will often return when their pups are fully grown. Occasionally a zoroark will tolerate or even desire raising their pups in captivity. They will lay out their needs for this as well, although it typically amounts to a dark, safe, and permanent home.

Zorua cubs should not engage in anything more than a playfight until they reach two full years of age.

Subspecies

There are six subspecies of zoroark. The first is the Olympic zoroark discussed above.

The second is the montane zoroark. While there has not been a stable colony of zoroark in the wild since at least the 1920s, they continue to thrive in captivity. Mormon theology teaches that God gave the montane zoroark to the church as a gift. The church proceeded to round up almost all of the zoroark in the Rocky Mountains and tame them. They currently run a breeding program for the montane zoroark that contains nearly all of the world's montane zoroark. These zoroark are used to protect their churches, leadership and missionaries. Cynics also attribute the public and private miracles of the church to zoroark illusions.

Montane zoroark are powerful telepaths that create illusions by hacking the brain of their targets and altering their sensory processing. This makes their illusions the most powerful; it also means that they are sometimes unable to affect all nearby minds at once. The sheer versatility of their power and ability to completely block the senses of opponents makes them by far the most powerful zoroark subspecies, as is seen whenever the church allows one of its members to use one in battle. The remaining montane zoroark are owned by the Smithsonian Institute. Every few years they will display montane zorua at the National Zoo; zoroark would never consent to this. There are persistent rumors that other branches of the United States government may possess montane zoroarks, but this has never been proven. Montane zorua are very similar in appearance to the Olympic zorua, if a bit lighter in coloration and with bright purple eyes instead of pale blue.

Desert zoroark used to range from Texas to Tenochtitlan and from the Gulf to the Pacific. At present they are confined to a patchwork of habitats in Anahuac and a handful of National Parks and reservations in the American Southwest. The Aztecs, Navajo and Hopi revered the desert zoroark and the lands under their control house most of the remaining desert zoroark population. Unfortunately, the post-war instability in Anahuac has put the zoroark population there at risk. While poaching is a crime punishable by death and state sponsored hunts have been discontinued, zoroark populations in Ananhuac have plummeted since 1981. Until 1903 the United States offered substantial bounties for zoroark and sent military expeditions to wipe the species out. The unwillingness of some Native American leaders to hand over the zoroark on their lands was the pretext for a number of wars.

Desert zoroark create their illusions in a similar manner to Olympic zoroark, suggesting that they may be the most closely related of the subspecies. It would be impractical to use water in the air to create their illusions given their habitat. Instead, they create tiny heat waves to shape the air around them. While their tactile illusions are entirely unconvincing, they learn visual and auditory illusions much faster than their Olympic counterparts and don't need to spend much time redeveloping an illusory body after their old one is destroyed. They are classified as dual dark- and fire-types and can create more powerful heat waves in battle than the ones they use for illusions.

The swamp zoroark is nearly extinct in the wild. They are the largest of the subspecies and tend to be dark green in color with light purple stripes across their body. Their manes are also the smallest proportionally and stop growing when they reach physical maturity. Unlike other zoroark subspecies, they have webbed paws and spend most of their time in the water and, when they do go on land, they walk on all fours. Because of this and the factors below, it is believed that they are the ancestor of the other zoroark species.

Swamp zoroark do not create particularly detailed illusions. Instead, they emit gasses that cause hallucinations and feelings of panic in their target. Long-term exposure results in blindness and even death. These gasses are used for hunting and defense. At present, there are believed to be fewer than 80 swamp zoroark and zorua in the wild. Most live in and around Everglades National Park, with the remainder split between the bayous of Louisiana and Congaree National Park in South Carolina.

The remaining two zoroark subspecies are extinct in the wild. However, wild populations occasionally pop up around the world. This suggests that they have simply abandoned the forests and plains of North American entirely to integrate into human society.

The first of these subspecies is the plains zoroark. They have thick dark brown fur in the winter and a lighter coat of grey fur in the summer. Their mane resembles a cape extending from the bottom of their head and they didn't use beads. Plains zoroark are powerful telekinetics who create and craft forcefields into a body. They then warp the light and sound around their forcefields through an unknown method to complete the illusion. Plains zoroark have the most durable illusions of all zoroark and they can form them rather quickly. However, they are among the least intelligent of the subspecies and take some time to learn the voices and social norms of other species.

Forest zorua were the most common subspecies at the time of European first contact. They ranged from Quebec and Ontario to the southern tip of the Appalachians and from the Atlantic to the Mississippi. Forest zorua are proper shapeshifters rather than illusionists and morph their form until they physically become their illusion. Like ditto, it is entirely unknown how this works. However, forest zorua suffer from one core weakness: they must concentrate hard to maintain their illusory form. Lapses in concentration, including sleep, will often cause their illusion to begin to break down. While some particularly clever zoroark can maintain their illusions for up to 72 hours, even through full nights of sleep, a heavy enough blow will cause them to almost instantly revert. As such, there is some speculation that forest zoroark do not shapeshift so much as use an attack akin to substitute. Unfortunately, captive forest zoroark tend to commit suicide or refuse to eat, much less cooperate with experimenters. It may never be known how, exactly, the forest zoroark's illusions work.


	13. Furfrou

**Furfrou**

Overview 

Furfrou has a reputation as perhaps the most regal and snobby of the world's canines, and certainly of the world's domestic canines. But the truth is that furfrou are, charitably, one the most energetic of the domestic canines. Less charitably, they are perhaps the least intelligent. So how did a high energy, low attention span dog that would rather be sloppily licking their trainer than sitting beside their throne become synonymous with poise and nobility?

As usual, there's an extensive and messy history behind the breed.

Furfrou, along with yamper, was one of only two canines to be domesticated in Europe. (Fenniken was domesticated in the Sahara around 1500 C.E. and would not become popular in Europe until the 1700s.) Furfrou was also one of the earliest domestic pokémon of any sort available in Europe. Between their long fur and potential for herding and protecting other livestock, they were quickly adopted by farmers across the continent. Foreign visitors during the early Kalosian Empire viewed furfrou as synonymous with the European method of agriculture.

There was a slight problem with furfrou, though: they are not the patient herders that stoutland and arcanine are. Instead they easily get distracted by birds, flowers, people, wild Pokémon, or the sun and stop watching the herd or walk away altogether before coming back at night with their tail between their legs. Farmers initially tried rectifying this by adopting a larger court of furfrou to watch both each other and the livestock, but they only distracted each other. As soon as arcanine were imported to Europe in the late stages of the Kalosian Empire, furfrou were only retained as livestock for their fur or as protectors of children. The widespread domestication of lopunny slowly led to their decline in even those roles.

Enter Empress Apolline. Born a common farmer, she was conscripted into the Imperial Army during The Winter Legions' Mutiny. Her tactical brilliance and skill with taming pokémon led to her rising quickly up the ranks and, after the death of the emperor at the Battle of Cylage placed one of the rebels next in the line of succession, the Lumiose Guard raised her to the throne. She carried the war within the year and her compassion and cunning during the post-war era lead to peace in Kalos for another century. She also had fond memories of her family's furfrou and brought several into the court in order to train senior military leaders and nobles in pokémon husbandry. The court, in turn, happily adopted furfrou as the Kalosian equivalent to the Galarian monarchs' yamper and played up the nobility and beauty of the breed as a form of propaganda.

Over generations and dynasties, the furfrou stayed as a symbol of Kalos in general, and the monarchy in particular. The elaborate styling of frufrou's coats was perfected during this period. Previously furfrou shaving had been a mundane semiannual task to obtain fur and improve the furfrou's mobility; now it was (and mostly still is) a form of conspicuous consumption and class status.

It can be expensive to obtain a purebred furfrou in Alola (or almost anywhere else), but mutts are somewhat common in the wild and shelters as most trainers and families view them as too high maintenance and the wealthy would prefer a purebred. However, furfrou make excellent pets for anyone who wants a high energy dog or a chance to practice advanced grooming techniques.

Physiology

Furfrou are classified as normal-types by the Department of Agriculture, as they lack the criteria for any other typing.

Furfrou are rather typical, if lean, canine pokémon. Their only main distinctions are their long, shaggy white fur and their somewhat delicate facial structure. Most purebred furfrou have a very long and narrow snout compared to other canines. This is impractical and forces them to greatly slow down while eating. It is a product of selective breeding for purely aesthetic purposes.

Furfrou's fur is not actually as thick as that of cincinno or lopunny. However, it is somewhat curly and grows very quickly. This leads to it fluffing out more than most other pokémon's fur. They can grow a full coat of fur up to 40 centimeters long in six months and the fur can extend a ways away from their body, leading to them looking more like a mareep than a ninetales.

Unusually for canines with long coats, they do not have summer and winter coats that they shed with the seasons change. Instead, furfrou fur reaches its terminal length and stays that long until it is groomed. Feral furfrou thus almost always have the maximum coat length. In their original range in Northern Europe this was seldom a problem, but in Alola this can be a serious health concern as, like most canines, furfrou have no better means of heat release than simple panting.

Purebred furfrou grow up to 0.8 meters in height at the withers and can weigh between 25 and 40 kilograms, depending upon how long their fur is at the time. Mutts are usually somewhat larger. Purebreds live around seven years in captivity; mutts usually live between 10 and 15. Neither typically survives long in the wild, especially in Alola.

Behavior

As mentioned above, furfrou are very energetic and playful. They are also quite social and, when stressed, will seek out the nearest furfrou, other canine, fluffy pokémon or human and stick very close to them. They frequently rub against fences or trees for reasons that are not well understood. In colder climes or when recently shorn, furfrou are known to run for several hours a day and spend the rest of their time sleeping.

Feral furfrou mostly prefer to scavenge or beg around human settlements rather than go hunting. This is partially because they have one of the weakest senses of smell of all canine pokémon and their vision isn't much better. Hunting in crowded urban areas by hearing alone is rather difficult for them and most aren't well trained in tracking or battling in captivity.

When they must hunt, furfrou tend to be ambush predators staying motionless in one place until something they think they can kill crosses their path. Unfortunately for them, furfrou are both conspicuous and impatient. They frequently move around and blow their cover, jump at things that are not edible (or even living), play with their potential prey rather than eating it, or forget what they were doing and wander off.

Husbandry

Furfrou eat standard canine food mixes and are also capable of eating most common human foods. They are notorious beggers and their diet should be monitored. However, they are also active enough that they seldom get particularly fat.

Speaking of their activity, furfrou require several walks a day. It is best to do these around sunrise and sunset, with a shorter walk in the late morning and early afternoon (or both). Even furfrou without much fur can overheat in the late afternoon sun.

Furfrou are incredibly social in captivity and will require either another dog to keep them company or near-constant proximity. When awake they will demand scratches, walks, food or playtime. If these are denied they will attempt to cuddle their trainer with full body tackles, steal whatever is distracting their human or (curiously) grab onto their trainer's leg and start licking it continuously, sometimes for up to an hour.

Unless under strict veterinary observation, furfrou should have their fur trimmed once every three months. Most groomers are more than capable of giving them basic cuts. Advanced cut groomers are somewhat rare in Alola as eevee, stoutland, rockruff, growlithe and vulpix are far more popular pets, but they can be found in Hau'oli and Malie. There is some debate as to whether elaborate styles are uncomfortable for furfrou. It appears to vary depending upon the style and dog and furfrou should be monitored closely after they receive a new styled trim to gauge their comfort with it.

Illness

Purebred furfrou suffer from a number of health problems. Snout injuries and cancers are the most common, but almost any illness or injury a dog can suffer is a risk for a purebred. They should receive veterinary checkups once every six months, ideally after grooming sessions. Mutts tend to have fewer health problems.

One particular challenge for furfrou is that their habit of rubbing against anything and everything in their territory often leads to skin infections. These can be very difficult to spot given the coverage and bulk of their fur. Furfrou should be thoroughly petted often to check for skin wounds; the dog will not mind this.

Like all canines, furfrou can carry rabies and should be vaccinated. This is usually done shortly after birth so it won't be a problem for anyone but breeders.

Evolution

Juvenile furfrou look like smaller versions of adult furfrou, albeit they are often a little less fluffy. Furfrou typically reach maturity and their adult size around one year of age.

Battle

Furfrou's lack of size and elemental attacks, as well as their frankly middling speed, mean that they are almost never the dog of choice for competitive battlers. The one exception to this is in the Kalos league, where many trainers who have access to the private tutors, TMs, money to travel extensively, and training supplies that help them succeed also tend to have furfrou.

This does not mean that furfrou are unusable on the island challenge, although they do suffer severe competiton from the many other dog breeds in Alola (arcanine, eevee, vulpix, lycanroc, manectric, stoutland, riolu, zoroark, houndoom, granbull). However, they are fast enough and their fur coat durable enough that they can dominate many early challenges and still get a hit or two off in the later ones. Other pokémon will need to pick up the slack towards the end, but furfrou users are playing an even longer game. Furfrou are high maintenance but energetic and lovable pets that can live for years after the island challenge is over.

In battle, it is best to keep things simple. While furfrou can learn several projectile attacks through TMs, they do not have the energy reserves to utilize them effectively. Instead they should rely upon tackles and full-body melee attacks combined with a few basic tricks such as roar, protect and double team if the TMs can be found or afforded. They are countered by ghosts, steel, and rock types, powerful physical walls and most birds. Anything they can hit successfully (at least, when most opponents are using common juvenile pokémon) will likely take significant enough damage to make up for their long list of counters.

Purebred furfrou should be withdrawn after taking serious hits or multiple weak ones to avoid significant injury. A good rule of thumb is that if a purebred's coat is in disarray, it's time to end the round.

Acquisition

Furfrou can be adopted, captured or purchased with a Class I license. A few feral furfrou can be found around Hau'oli City, especially in the winter. It is far easier to simply adopt one from the shelters in the city. There are also furfrou breeders on Ula'Ula and Melemele.

Breeding

Furfrou courtship, mating, pregnancy and child rearing are all quite typical for canines. This makes them a good starter pokémon for getting into the breeding of more difficult dogs such as ninetales, zoroark, eevee and granbull. Furfrou have been known to mate with every other canine species on Alola, although some crossbreedings are more difficult than others. Most furfrou hybrids are reproductively viable.

Furfrou pregnancies last roughly two months and they have litters of four to six puppies.

Subspecies 

None known.


	14. Raichu

**Raichu (Pichu, Pikachu, Hodad)**

Overview 

It is somewhat difficult to explain pikachu's global popularity. Until the late twentieth century they were only common in central Japan and Alola with small invasive colonies elsewhere. They are not the most popular pokémon among Japan's trainers. Worldwide, relatively few casual trainers used them before the 1990s and relatively few use them today. They are virtually absent from the competitive battling scene beyond the occasional use of hodad as a bird counter.

By all accounts, pikachu owes its popularity to one trainer who used a pikachu medically incapable of evolution (see Illness) and the subsequent anime and video games made about his improbable rise through the underground and officially sanctioned battling scenes of metropolitan Yamabuki. How the story and media caught on just as much, if not more so, outside of Japan than in it is a discussion for another book in another field.

Pikachu's cuteness and perceived power led to its rise as a popular pet worldwide, even to the point of largely supplanting the popularity of related electric types such as emolga, dedenne, togedemaru, plusle and minun, and pachirisu. However, whatever the Satoshi-inspired anime and games say, most pikachu inevitably grow up. And many people find raichu to be not quite as cute as their adolescent stage. Furthermore they aeriously disrupt nearby electronics. Pichu have relatively little control over their electric sacs and can be dangerous to have around very young children, in addition to being a frequent literal and metaphorical pain for their trainer.

This is not to say that the pikachu line are bad pets, exactly. They are cute, loyal, friendly and (once they evolve for the first time) almost entirely safe. But they do not work for every trainer and those prizing cuteness in their electric-types above all else might be better served by a togedemaru, emolga or dedenne, which have the advantage of not growing into a larger form.

There are also misconceptions about the Alolan or Tapu raichu (referred to in this guide by their traditional name: hodad). Normal raichu are not absent from or even uncommon in Alola. Most pikachu here evolve into raichu. Additionally, hodad does not appear to be a raichu subspecies. They are both branching evolutions of pikachu like slowbro and slowking are to slowpoke. Indigenous Alolans did not and do not worship hodad; they worship Tapu Koko and believe that hodad are blessed by the land spirit. However, this veneration was only particularly common on Melemele; the residents of other islands had their own sacred emissaries.

Physiology

Plusle, pikachu and raichu are classified as pure electric-types by the Department of Agriculture. Hodad is classified as a dual electric- and psychic-type. There is some dispute as to whether they should have a third fairy-typing. However, as they fit the criteria for their two primary typings far better and third typings are presently disallowed, it is unlikely that hodad's official typing changes unless the basic rules of official typings change as well.

Pichu, as well as pikachu and raichu, are predominately quadrupedal but can stand up on their hind legs if needed. Pichu are pale yellow in color, except for the fringes of their ears (black), their cheeks (pink), their tail (black), and a jagged band of fur around their neck (black). They are perhaps most easily distinguished from pikachu based on their size and the prominence of their feet. Pichu's electric sacs are not fully developed. This makes them prone to weak discharge when startled; they can be startled by their own involuntary discharges, leading to a feedback loop of release that leaves the pichu severely drained. Their electric sacs are also not developed enough to store large amounts of electricity, meaning that their total discharges still don't release as much power as the average raichu's thunder shock attacks.

Pikachu are generally bulkier than pichu with less prominent limbs and a proportionally larger torso. The cheeks darken to a bright red color and their tail becomes longer, more jagged and coated in yellow fur. Their ears are also proportionally longer and only colored black at the very tips. Pikachu's electric sacs are nearly as large as those of a raichu, allowing them to hold about as much electricity. However, their release processes are less sophisticated and they have less experience using them, leading to frequent situations where they discharge too much at once and either hurt themselves or run out of energy quickly in a battle. However, as Satoshi's pikachu demonstrated, their unregulated thunderbolts can be the strongest of any common electric-type.

It has been said that raichu resemble pichu far more closely than pikachu. They are proportionally longer, their ears are fringed in darker brown fur, and their feet are quite prominent, especially when compared to the stubby legs of pikachu. Raichu are darker in color than their juvenile forms, except for a cream-colored belly. This makes them appear counter-shaded, which is unusual for a purely terrestrial organism. This has led to some speculation that the ancestors of raichu could either swim or fly. The circles on raichu's cheeks (which, contrary to popular belief, are not the exterior of their electricity pouches but rather just ornamental markings) are pale yellow in color.

Perhaps the most interesting element of raichu's physiology is the existence of a long brown "cord" between their tail proper and the rest of their body. Most trainers can't believe that a tail so thin can hold up the bulky lightning-bolt-shaped tip. This disbelief is supported by reality; raichu can't hold up their tail with muscles alone. Instead they use sophisticated electromagnetic currents to move their tail around and channel their lightning bolts. This gives them much more accuracy, range, speed and physical power than pikachu, as they can use their electricity to supply kinetic energy to their own body.

This is far more visible in hodad. They have even larger tails with equally thin cords leading to them. Hodad often balance the rest of their body on top of their tail and fly through the air on them. This gives them the appearance of surfing. Beyond that, hodad are generally of a lighter color than raichu, with the brown fur on their paws replaced with white fur. The eyes literally bright blue (that is, their eyes emit light of their own and glow in the dark). The ears are also rounded and appear to contain a spiral pattern, although this is actually just a result of their magnetic field acting up on their fur. Hodads' ears are also light yellow in coloration.

There is some dispute as to whether or not hodad utilize actual telekinesis or just manipulate themselves and other objects with electromagnetic fields. Hodad can be taught to use a variety of other mind-affecting attacks that give them the marking of a psychic-type. They are also quite adept at communicating with human psychics. Since telepathy and telekinesis usually go together in pokémon, it is speculated that they augment their natural electromagnetic abilities with telekinesis.

Despite common misconceptions, no member of the pikachu evolutionary line feeds upon electricity; they are all vegetarians. They prefer berries but can also eat leaves, bark and stems. Pikachu and raichu prefer to cook their food and will often use their electricity to scorch plants (especially unfamiliar ones) before eating them. Hodad feed almost exclusively upon berries and use their levitation to rise up berry trees and then dart to the next grove. They do not scorch their food.

The misconception that pikachu subsist on electricity has a clear origin: lightning often strikes near pikachu colonies. Almost every time there is a storm, the skies above the forests that pikachu and raichu inhabit will be almost constantly lit up. Raichu also flock to the areas around power plants and other crucial parts of the electric grid. All stages of the evolutionary line (save hodad) become tired when they have not been exposed to lightning or raw electricity in some time. After a long withdrawal period they will resume their normal activity levels, but they will not use electricity until they are recharged. Unlike most electric types, it does not appear as if they can generate their own power and must rely upon lightning strikes or leeching from the electric grid (or shocks from other pokémon) to maintain their defensive and offensive capabilities.

Hodad, however, do appear to generate their own electricity. They are still frequently struck by lightning and briefly become hyperactive after they are hit. It is unclear how their generation works as their internal anatomy is very similar to raichu and none of the differences appear to explain this ability.

Raichu grow up to 0.8 meters when standing upright, tail not included. They can weigh up to 20 kilograms. Hodad grow up to 0.7 meters and can weigh up to 22 kilograms. Raichu typically live for about seven years in both captivity and the wild. Hodad can live up to thirty years.

Behavior

Pichu are almost entirely dependent upon their evolved forms in the wild. They typically stay inside of their underground nests until they approach their first evolution, so it is difficult to observe their wild behaviors. In captivity and when they begin to leave their nest, pichu are incredibly curious pokémon prone to gleefully exploring their surroundings and being fascinated by individual objects, particularly human-made ones, for hours. Or until they accidentally shock it and become upset, triggering a feedback loop and often damaging the target of their affections. They are primarily nocturnal.

Pikachu spend most of their time either sleeping or foraging. Batteries can contain up to thirty individuals (including pichu and raichu), but individuals mostly forage alone. They are skilled climbers and move from tree to tree without leaving the canopy for most of the day. Pikachu are also skilled burrowers who dig shallow tunnel networks that they sleep in during the night. It is not that pikachu aren't curious, rather, they simply devote very little time in a day to anything that isn't survival. When they encounter a new potential nest or food source they can spend up to an hour exploring it before either committing to taking the nest over, cooking the food or wandering away. One of pikachu's most interesting behaviors is their tendencies to shock weakened pikachu to restore the depleted pokémon's electricity sacs. They will sometimes even do this to pikachu in other batteries they encounter on their foraging journeys.

Raichu spend most of their day around the colony's nest guarding against potential predators. They are not strictly diurnal or nocturnal; the raichu in a colony tend to sleep in shifts so that at least one is awake at all times. When they feel a nest is unsafe or wish to introduce their pichu to the outside world, they have the ability to warp their magnetic field to stick pichu against their backs and render them nearly incapable of escape.

Hodad do not live in the same battery as pikachu and pichu. Instead they move between the territory of different batteries as they please. They tend to live in pairs. Rather than burrowing, they sleep in the canopy. Like pikachu, hodad are primarily diurnal (although it is also not uncommon to see them active at night, especially if there's a storm). They do not rear their own pichu and instead drop them off in a nearby battery. In exchange, they provide protection for all batteries in their range should they be seriously threatened. If they are unable to protect a colony, they will drop their carefree attitude in a heartbeat to avenge them. It was this attribute that gave them their semi-mythical status in Alolan folklore. Chiefs who built structures in the wrong territory or dared to hunt pikachu would often wind up killed by a thunderbolt on a clear day, as if struck down by Tapu Koko herself. This vigorous defense of pikachu territory is one of the reasons Route 1 zoning is entirely controlled by the Melemele kahuna.

Husbandry

Pichu are nearly as demanding as an actual human infant or toddler. If the parent raichu are available, it is best to simply leave the baby's care largely in their parents' hands (see Breeding). However, because many pichu in captivity are obtained from captive hodad, who refuse to care for their own offspring, many trainers will find themselves in the position of having to raise a pichu on their own.

The first major challenge the trainer will face is that very young pichu require raichu milk to survive. This can be purchased at some specialty breeder supply stores in Alola's large cities. Travel should not be attempted with a very young pichu as a constant supply of milk is needed and even brief disruptions can lead to starvation. As they grow older, pichu become more willing to eat mashed up fruit and, eventually, some crushed leaves. Pichu at this age should not be shocked because a pichu with electricity means shocks for their human caretakers as well as frequent fires as they begin to explore their environment.

Young pichu should be stored in a room either without electrical outlets or with well covered and insulated ones. Their room should contain no sharp or heavy objects and should contain enclosed and soft spaces for them to retreat to when scared. This will occur very often, as pichu are scared of nearly everything until they approach evolution. They should also be given toys such as exercise wheels and objects dangling from string. Like all stages of the pikachu line, they will require something to gnaw on as well, lest they begin to burrow out of the door or walls. To be safe, pichu should never be put into a pokéball until they reach three months of age, and then the ball should be only sparingly used.

Pikachu require far less constant care. However, they are very social pokémon who tend to resent pokéballs and anything else they see as separating them from their trainer. Pikachu love most machines; the machines tend not to love pikachu back. Keep them away from any electronics that haven't been specifically made to resist electric types. Pikachu will need somewhat frequent electric charges. Access to a simple electrical outlet can usually do the trick. Alternatively, pikachu chargers are available for sale at most Pokémon Centers in Alola. The machines' efficacy seems to vary depending upon the exact model and individual pikachu.

Pikachu, raichu and hodad will all eat as much as they can. This will often prove to be more than their metabolisms can handle. Feed them a quantity roughly equal to one fifth of their body weight each day. They will beg for more food after battles, but they do not need food so much as a good charge. The pokémon will still exploit their human's ignorance about that if they can. Pichu should be fed whenever they cry. If they do not accept the food, move on to other potential problems (minor injury, dirty litter, broken toys).

Pikachu enjoy frequent battles and exercise as well as enrichment in the form of new toys to experiment and play with or new locations to explore. If you do not want a pikachu to attempt to burrow in a home, provide them with some sort of enclosed area they can retreat to. Like all stages of the evolutionary line, they can be housebroken.

Raichu are more sedentary than pikachu. However, they require more electricity and the same amount of food to maintain their fields. Some raichu are fine with pokéballs; most are not. In general, they are less social than pikachu and more content to spend time alone or with another pokémon. Their electrical field makes them poor housepets as they have a habit of accidentally frying devices in their home. Traveling trainers with a raichu can find themselves burning through multiple phones a year.

Hodad are even rougher on electronic devices due to the increased strength of their field. They are also more active and social than raichu and require time on their own to fly. Otherwise they will get very energetic and start accidentally discharging electricity like a pichu. It is believed that flight is how they release excess energy, something that is constantly a problem for them as they generate their own supply. Hodad have a notorious sweet tooth and can be easily bribed and trained with their favorite type of berry. They prefer to sleep cuddled against either their trainer or a fluffy pokémon, preferably an electric type. Most fluffy pokémon hate getting their fur messed up by static electricity, so hodad trainers should just accept that they're going to wake up most mornings next to a drooling pokémon and with their hair sticking every which way. For this reason, short haircuts and cheap pajamas are recommended for hodad trainers. Alternatively, ampharos do not seem to mind hodad cuddles.

Illness

Some pikachu have problems with their electricity sacks that make the process of evolution medically inadvisable. There is a surgical procedure that can prevent them from undergoing it. Pikachu so altered typically live for five years, which is only a little longer than they would have otherwise lasted. The main reason this surgery is actually performed in practice is to ensure that the pokémon stays as a cute and relatively powerful pikachu forever. As such, there are an increasing number of veterinarians and surgeons who will not perform the procedure at all.

Most health problems any member of the evolutionary line will have are related to their electric sacs. These problems are usually temporary and work themselves out again after a good charge or discharge. If a pokémon continues to have unusual difficulty with their electricity (such as accidental releases for pikachu, raichu or hodad, painful discharges or shying away from electronics or other electric-types) for more than two days, consult a veterinarian.

As a final note, as they age some raichu and hodad experience senility and a partial loss of hearing. This is very common among related species and should be accepted. However, this often leads to raichu being unable to easily distinguish verbal commands. A raichu older than seven years should never be ordered to use thunder wave if the trainer isn't fine with them using thunderbolt instead.

Evolution

Pichu and pikachu evolve in brief periods of four to six days. The exact catalyst for evolution is unknown, but the leading theory at present is that it is tied to their total lifetime exposure to electricity. Usually this evolution occurs between four and six months of age for pichu and three to five years of age for raichu. Exposure to thunder stones can almost immediately trigger an evolution in a pikachu. However, this amount of electricity can be dangerous or even fatal for a pichu and no effort should be made to force their evolution. Shortly before evolution, the pokémon becomes very hyperactive and begins to eat anything it possibly can. Then it goes sluggish for a few days of very rapid growth. They will prefer to retreat into their burrow for the duration of this process in the wild and some equivalent structure should be provided in captivity. Evolution might generate electricity; in any case, the pokémon will be incredibly charged immediately after completing the process and will be nearly as energetic as they were before evolution (if a lot clumsier as they adjust to their new body).

Hodad evolution is different. Sometimes, particularly on melemele, a thunderstone with a spiral pattern carved into one surface will appear. A pikachu exposed to these stones will immediately begin a flash evolution into hodad. These stones can also be broken up into pieces that can serve as impromptu z-crystal to allow for a massive, temporary increase in the power of a hodad's electromagnetic field.

Battle

Pikachu have a small niche in competitive battling given the sheer power they can unleash. Once. Maybe twice. If the attack is blocked, dodged or the pikachu is knocked out before they can execute it, they won't deal any damage at all in the fight. Given pikachu's size and relative frailty, they are not durable enough to take almost any hit from a pokémon on the competitive circuits at all.

Hodad holds a more substantial role, if only barely so. Flying electric-types are understandably popular for their ability to not only strike birds with powerful weakness-targeting moves, but to keep up with them in their home turf. Unfortunately for hodad, vikavolt exists and is both faster and more powerful. Hodad holds some niche advantages, though, like better offensive and defensive movepools with attacks such as focus blast, encore, magic coat and reflect. Birds are also less likely to know bug buzz, shadow ball or dark pulse than they are to know heat wave. But even on their good days, hodad aren't capable of firing off thunderbolts half as powerful as a vikavolt's. And vikavolt have the added perk of not frying their trainer's cell phone.

Raichu are neither fast nor powerful enough to earn a substantial role in competitive battling. Some recent trainers have used them early in their careers. They usually obtained one after being misled by video games or television and the trainer was then unwilling or unable to convince a veterinarian to render their pikachu incapable of evolution.

This is not to say that either raichu or hodad is bad for casual battling or the island challenge. To start with, raichu and hodad are much easier to obtain, evolve and train than vikavolt. And their thunderbolts are more than capable of keeping pace with even the later totem pokémon and grand trials. It should be noted that raichu is not particularly bulky and hodad is even frailer. For the most part they should be used as ranged nukes that can hold their own up close if necessary but are better served getting in hits from a distance and keeping their opponent at bay. Moves such as double team and protect are a hodad or raichu's best friend.

Pikachu are also frail, but they are quite capable of taking the average hits of the first two islands' trials. By the time the third island comes around, it may be time to evolve them. Otherwise they battle much like their evolutions, although early on it might be practical to mix in physical moves such as iron tail, quick attack or slam as their opponents will also be relatively frail and the pikachu can't keep up thunder shocks for long without exhausting themselves.

Pichu should be battled with sparingly and against weak opponents only, and even then they should only be battled with at all after they reach three months of age. It is best to leave them to nursery room fights against other very young pokémon.

Acquisition

All stages of the pikachu line are often found around Hau'oli City and in Route 1.

Raising a pichu from an egg without a raichu requires a Class IV license. Raising a pichu from an egg with a raichu requires only a Class II license, or a Class I license if you have a female raichu. (The disparity is due to the difficulty of obtaining milk without a female raichu.) Hodad will not raise a pichu and thus do not discount the license requirement. Pichu should never be captured inside of their nest as this is against commonwealth law. But a fine is the least of your worries if you disturb a pichu nest, as hodad tend to aggressively avenge those transgressions. Pichu out of a nest can be captured with a Class II license. Pichu over three months of age can also be adopted or purchased with a Class II license.

Pikachu can be adopted, purchased or captured with a Class I license. However, pikachu can only be captured inside of Route 1 after defeating at least one of the Melemele trials. Even then, only one pikachu capture per trainer is allowed. The restrictions in Hau'oli City itself are far laxer. Both pichu and raichu are commonly available from breeders.

Raichu and hodad may not be captured from the wild in Alola. However, many trainers abandon them to shelters after they lose their first cell phone. This makes them rather easy to adopt. Both require a Class III license to adopt or purchase.

Breeding

Female raichu mate with a male in their battery about once a year. After a five week pregnancy, they give birth to two pichu. Raichu carefully guard all pichu in their nest, regardless of parentage. They do not allow them to leave the nest at all until they reach about three months of age, and even then they are only allowed to leave when magnetically glued to a raichu's back. They are only allowed to explore on their own after another two to four weeks.

Hodad pairs sometimes never mate. They also frequently form homosexual pairs that, regardless of whether they mate or not, cannot reproduce. Sometimes hodad pairs mate and reproduce up to three times a year. Hodad pregnancy is very similar to raichu pregnancy. After their young are born, the male hodad will seek glue them to his body and seek out a nearby battery to drop the pichu off at. Hodad don't seem to have any preference as to which battery they drop eggs off at. Some pairs will drop theirs off at the same one every time, and others will drop them off at a different one each time. There does not appear to be any clear driving factor behind their selection.

Subspecies

Some pikachu colonies have different coloration, fur patterns, tail patterns, or fur thickness than others. These are viewed as normal variations within a subspecies rather than classifying the breeds as separate subspecies altogether. There is some dispute as to whether or not Alolan pikachu constitute a different subspecies as their fur is generally lighter and thinner, but at present this split is not widely accepted within the scientific community as they are otherwise very similar to Japanese pikachu. Additionally any pikachu who encounters the right stone can evolve into hodad.


	15. Vikavolt

**Grubbin (Charjabug, Vikavolt)**

Overview 

Most pokémon species in this book were introduced to the islands by humans. Broadly speaking, they came in three waves: the initial Polynesian settlers, Japanese and Chinese expeditions between 800 C.E. and 1100 C.E., and European explorers and colonizers after 1750 C.E.

However, a handful of species (particularly migratory birds and aquatic pokémon) were living on Alola before humans first arrived on its shores. Some of those species are found nowhere else in the world. Grubbin is one example. And out of all of the truly Alolan pokémon, it is by far the most famous and feared outside of the islands.

It has been mentioned several times before in this book that flying pokémon hold a metagame defining and constraining role in competitive battling. Because of this, any team without a reliable bird counter or several bird checks is doomed to failure. And vikavolt might be the best bird counter there is. Vikavolt pack some of the strongest thunderbolts of any pokémon, they can keep up with most birds in both speed and agility in the air, and they are natural predators of birds in the wild. Some of the most prominent birds in the international metagame, such as skarmory and talonflame, live in Alola and vikavolt have learned how to defend themselves against and even hunt them.

Vikavolt are the reason that the most powerful bug specialists feel the need to take a pilgrimage to Alola. They are also the reason that Alola draws some of the world's most prominent trainers to the Battle Tree Invitational Tournament year in and year out. Vikavolt may not be the single most metagame defining pokémon on the international scene right now, but, their relatively recent rise to prominence and their small native range means that if a trainer wants one, there's really only one place to get them.

This hasn't been entirely good for vikavolt. Their juvenile forms are easy pickings for scyther, volcarona, pinsir and heracross. While the latter isn't even a carnivore, they have no desire to compete with the highly aggressive vikavolt for territory and resources. And while vikavolt are almost uniquely built to take on the migratory birds that flock to Alolan shores each year, they are somewhat physically frail and other powerful bugs can sometimes lure them into a trap and take them out. Even before their meteoric rise on the competitive scene, grubbin were essentially extinct on Poni and declining on Akala due to competition from other bugs. Concerns about overharvesting for competitive battling led to the Commonwealth establishing a small grubbin formation in Galar to take pressure off of the Alolan populations. Alola was given $350,000,000 to establish this relatively small formation.

Thankfully, it is much easier to obtain a grubbin or charjabug as an island challenger than as a member of the general public. Please note that there are still restrictions in place on quickly trading or selling grubbin, and more than one trainer has run afoul of the law while trying to make a quick buck on the grubbin market.

Physiology

Grubbin are classified as pure bug types by the Department of Agriculture. Charjabug and vikavolt are classified as dual bug- and electric-types. There is some dispute as to whether or not grubbin should have an additional ground-typing, but as they are neither terrakinetic nor built to thrive in sandstorms or deserts, the current ruling is quite likely to stand.

Grubbin are small bug-types with four distinct body segments. The latter three are light grey in color with occasional yellow spots. These segments contain most of grubbin's organs as well as their legs, two per each hind segment. The front segment is the largest and orange in color, with a yellow 'visor' shielding their mouth and the base of their mandibles from aerial attack. While they appear to have large ringed eyes, these are simply ornamental. Grubbin are entirely blind, something they make up for with lateral lines that allow them to sense the electric signals in the living organisms around them. Their mandibles extend from the front of their head. The mandibles usually contain yellow and orange stripes. The exact width and number of the stripes is unique to each grubbin. Right above their mouth, grubbin have another orifice for the release and withdrawal of silk lines. While silk production isn't uncommon among young bugs, grubbin use it in an interesting way. They release the silk at high speed to snare potential predators, rivals or prey and slowly pull them towards the grubbin's powerful mandibles, where they can be killed or battered further.

Charjabug look quite different from grubbin at a glance, leading early European explorers to determine that the charjabug and vikavolt on Ula'Ula and Poni were a different species altogether than the grubbin on Melemele and Akala. To start with, charjabug are uncannily geometric. Their body is an almost perfect rectangular prism with only short, stubby legs and mandibles protruding from it. Most of their body is green, except for one face of their body which contains their face. The face is broken into a grid of nine perfect squares. The bottom two squares in the middle column are grey and contain jagged lines—the mouth. The remaining squares in the middle row are a reflective blue. The mandibles, tiny yellow pegs, stick out of the remaining green squares on the bottom. The blue tiles contain the charjabug's eyes behind them. At least, they do for older charjabug. Newly evolved charjabug haven't finished growing eyes yet and still rely heavily on their lateral lines for navigation.

Charjabug are also known for being a sort of natural battery. (Although, contrary to popular belief, the manmade battery was not inspired by charjabug.) They slowly absorb energy throughout their life and can release it for either self defense or to assist a vikavolt. The main reason that charjabug can live on the surface undisturbed is that killing one will, at an unpredictable time after their death, set off an explosion of all the remaining electricity in their body. This will often take out their killer. Curiously, charjabug make accordion-like sounds when disturbed.

Vikavolt are about as different from charjabug as charjabug are from grubbin. They resemble a large beetle. Unlike other beetle pokémon such as pinsir and heracross, vikavolt are not bipeds and are most comfortable in the air. The upper portion of vikavolt's shell is dark blue. A portion of this shell covers the head. The rest is retractable and covers the wings. The rest of vikavolt's shell is black. Unlike grubbin and charjabug, they have four long, spindly legs rather than six stubby ones.

Vikavolt are most easily recognizable by their head and mandibles. Their head contains two bright yellow triangles that cover up their eyes. Right beneath their eyes they have an orange mouth which, like charjabug, opens horizontally rather than vertically. Their mandibles begin with horizontal green- and yellow-striped spikes facing away from their head. Then the mandibles extend up to 0.6 meters away from the mouth. The interior of the mandibles are typically green and contain a number of small spikes. The exterior is bright yellow. These are not used for grappling or eating prey (they actually must be swerved aside to let vikavolt get their mouth to their food). Instead, they are used for amplifying and releasing powerful thunderbolts.

Vikavolt are capable of reaching flight speeds up to fifty meters per second for very brief periods and pivoting a full 360 degrees in less than two seconds while moving at max speed. Their thunderbolts contain wattage and amperage approaching that of actual lightning and, at max charge, they can fire off up to a dozen before they absolutely need to rest. This is accomplished based on a few power saving or recharging tricks. First, vikavolt slightly charge themselves with every wingbeat, although this is not enough to recoup the energy loss of flight. They also reabsorb some of the ambient energy left in the air after firing off a bolt, which is the primary reason why wild vikavolt often wait up to a minute between attacks.

However, vikavolt do not passively generate their own electricity like some pokémon can. They need to eat. Grubbin are primarily herbivorous, although they will also scavenge kills or take out small bugs or birds from time to time. Charjabug don't move or eat much, preferring to keep their metabolism low to minimize the time until evolution. When they do eat, they tend to eat the remains of vikavolt kills or slowly work through a tree, as trees are immobile and large enough to last several charjabug through evolution. Vikavolt are primarily carnivorous, although they have sometimes been observed in the wild and in captivity seeking out flowers, fruit or nectar. Their preferred prey are birds.

There is a common belief in Alola that vikavolt are venting the impotent rage towards birds they had as a grubbin. This is mostly unsupported by evidence. Grubbin have relatively few predators as they spend almost their entire life underground (see Behavior), and the predators they do have tend to be dedicated insectivores or burrowers. Trumbeak occasionally prey upon grubbin, as do skarmory and fearow. But vikavolt only prey upon trumbeak when there are no larger birds to eat and, while they do hunt skarmory and fearow, they prefer larger migratory birds such as braviary, tropius and mandibuzz. All three species do not actively hunt grubbin and only kill vikavolt in self-defense.

Given the prominence of both psy-sensitive trainers and vikavolt on the competitive battling scene, there have been multiple papers published on the psychic lives of vikavolt. Most, but not all, psychics have concluded that vikavolt see birds with the detached gaze of a predator rather than the rage of a warrior out for vengeance.

However, after humans began to capture grubbin in large numbers, vikavolt have begun to attack adult humans in some portions of their range without provocation. This lends some credence to the idea that vikavolt hunt out of revenge. They do not eat killed humans and do not hunt children.

Grubbin grow up to 0.4 meters in length (including the mandible) and 5 kilograms in mass. Vikavolt grow up to 1.7 meters (including the mandible) in length and 10 kilograms in mass. Grubbin can live for four years in the wild and eight in captivity. Vikavolt live an average of nine years in the wild and twelve in captivity.

Behavior

Grubbin mostly live one to three meters beneath the surface their entire life, or until they evolve. They move from root system to root system and leave tunnels behind them. Grubbin live mostly solitary lives. Their tunnels are not a home, just a relic of where they've been. They almost never backtrack. When grubbin are unable to obtain enough food or water underground they will sometimes come to the surface to eat and drink. Once it finds stagnant water or a root system, the grubbin will disappear back underground.

Charjabug, like metapod, have very little behavior to speak of. Sometimes they will move to avoid a slow-moving natural disaster such as rising waters or lava flows. Occasionally they will crawl over to and up a tree for shelter or food. Otherwise, they stay still and absorb the ambient electricity that caused them to evolve in the first place.

Vikavolt behavior is more interesting. They stay in the air virtually all of the time, pausing only for a quick rest each night for three to five hours. This is usually one in brush or dense canopies. Because vikavolt are light sleepers and their primarily black and blue color scheme is difficult to see at night, this is a difficult weakness to exploit.

Perhaps the most interesting of vikavolt's behaviors is their relationship with charjabug. While they seldom interact with other vikavolt, they are prone to picking up a charjabug with their legs. The adolescent form appears to function as a battery, giving vikavolt the power to cast more thunderbolts and a shorter recharge time between attacks. However, the charjabug weighs them down and they sometimes leave them behind when chasing very fast prey or fleeing from predators. They almost always come back for their dropped charjabug. When their claimed charjabug evolves, the vikavolt keeps close watch over them and protects them from predators as they grow. If the vikavolt are of opposite sexes, they will form a lifelong mated pair. Otherwise, they will split when the younger vikavolt is fully grown and both will find a new charjabug. Mated pairs seldom use charjabug as batteries and discard them immediately after battle when they do use one.

Outside of hunting and resting, vikavolt tend to aimlessly fly around their territory. The exact purpose of this is unclear. Proposed theories for these flights include warning off other vikavolt, searching for new bird nests, or just killing time.

Husbandry

The three insect pokémon covered thus far in the guide (butterfree, ledian and ariados) are wonderful starting bugs. They aren't aggressive towards humans, they grow and die rather quickly, and they are each quite social. Vikavolt are almost none of these things. Trainers with no prior experience raising bug-types may find their grubbin, charjabug or vikavolt difficult to understand, and thus difficult to tame and care for. However, they are also not the most difficult bugs in the Alola region and they give fair warning before attacking their trainer. The most common complaint from trainers is actually that they are quite boring.

Grubbin primarily eat roots in the wild. This is easy enough to replicate in captivity by providing them with root vegetables. They should be fed three to five times a day. Grubbin will not eat if they are full or drink if they are not thirsty. Their vegetables should always be relatively fresh. If this is not feasible, other fruits and vegetables can be provided to them. Grubbin should be given a water cup at every meal.

Charjabug, for the most part, do not eat. They should be 'fed' through frequent access to a thunder stone, generator or electronic devices. Once every two to three days they should be offered tree bark, sticks, grass, or leaves and a cup of water. If they eat the food, get them a lettuce-based plant mix to eat until they no longer show an interest in food. If they drink the water, they should be provided with a cup of water once or twice a day until they stop drinking.

Vikavolt are almost entirely carnivorous. They aren't particularly picky on what they eat, but they usually prefer poultry. If their food is not cooked in advance they will zap it themselves. They should be fed frequently and in relatively large quantities. Like their juvenile forms, they will simply stop eating when they are full. Once the vikavolt has been in captivity (and fully grown) for a few weeks, their trainer should be able to work out how much and how frequently they need fed. Vikavolt require water far more consistently than their juvenile stages and should be provided cups of water more frequently than they are given food.

Grubbin will want to burrow. This makes them happy, but also makes them difficult to keep track of or retrieve. Breeders and trainers raising grubbin in permanent homes might wish to invest in a concrete or metal bin or pool filled with sand or soil. Sticks or vegetables should be frequently mixed in for enrichment and the sand should be sifted through or replaced roughly once a week to remove droppings. A water bin should be placed on top of the sediment. In general, grubbin are entirely fine with their pokéballs so long as they are regularly fed.

Charjabug also do not mind their pokéballs. Or much of anything. They should not be left in overly hot or dry environments for too long and should be left out of their pokéball for at least two hours a day. Of course, there's still a compelling reason to spend more time with grubbin and charjabug than is strictly required. And that reason has a predatory drive, wicked lightning bolts and flight faster than highway speed limits.

Vikavolt are mostly apathetic towards humans they do not know. They will accept offerings of cooked food (not raw food initially), but food alone will not make them warm up very quickly to a human. Usually they'll just take an early chance to zip away if their trainer has done the bare minimum to care for them in the past. Spending frequent time around grubbin and charjabug, helping the former battle and providing enriching environments for them, keeping them in luxury or friend balls and generally making a show of being protective of them will all help earn a measure of trust. Vikavolt will usually stay around a familiar human until they finish growing. This period is absolutely critical for earning a vikavolt's full trust, and even friendship.

Growing vikavolt should be protected from harm at all costs. They enjoy chasing toys such as paper airplanes, laser pointers or RC helicopters around to practice their lightning bolts and flight. Providing a pokémon that can teach a vikavolt new moves is also useful. Some young vikavolt have shown a fondness for batteries that they can hold in their legs like a charjabug. If all of these factors and others (food quality, environment, sleeping places, access to trainer) are met, a vikavolt will usually choose to stay with their trainer for life.

Fully grown vikavolt require far less sustained attention. They should be allowed to explore during the day whenever possible and trained to recognize a whistle so they know where to come back to at night. So long as high quality food is provided to them, they will seldom make a nuisance of themselves by hunting local wildlife. Vikavolt also require frequent battle or they will start acting up or terrorizing the local birds, even if they don't actually eat them. Vikavolt will demand either a place indoors or inside of a tent to sleep near their trainer at night. Outside of healing and (short) discipline, a vikavolt's pokéball should be used sparingly.

Beyond proximity while they sleep, vikavolt will demonstrate few conventional displays of affection. They are not social pokémon in the wild and even mated pairs only nest and occasionally hunt together.

Illness

Sometimes vikavolt or grubbin get parasites. These are usually not curable, but also usually not life threatening. Infections can usually be prevented by making sure their food is as fresh as possible. Parasite infections are usually marked by somewhat abrupt shifts in their dietary habits, either towards eating far more food than usual or towards eating less. Sometimes this leads to vikavolt becoming sluggish and putting on weight. Consult a veterinarian if these symptoms are observed as they can be managed with changes in diet and training.

Most other symptoms are a sign of hunger and can be easily solved by giving the pokémon food.

Evolution

Most grubbin, especially on Akala and Melemele, do not evolve in the wild.

Grubbin only evolve when they have been exposed to a persistent and powerful electromagnetic field. At that point they go to the surface, find some place hidden and secure, and slowly begin to grow and change into a charjabug. The process usually takes one to three days to complete. The main body of a charjabug is essentially a cocoon that the body of a vikavolt slowly forms within. Once enough energy has been absorbed, the nervous system's center switches from a network lining the shell's walls to a nerve cluster inside of the developing body. Then the vikavolt wakes up, breaks out of the charjabug and takes to the sky.

At this point, the new vikavolt is usually less than 0.4 meters long. They grow to their full size over the course of ten to twenty weeks, depending upon the availability of food. These new vikavolt primarily hunt insects at first before moving up to small mammals, small birds and, once they approach full size, larger birds. They spend almost all of their time seeking out new prey, with only an hour or two a night spent sleeping.

In captivity, it is best to spend some time with a grubbin before trying to evolve them. This helps gain their trust once they evolve into vikavolt. The exact time needed depends upon your experience with insects, but for a novice trainer two months is recommended. At this point, the easiest way to quickly evolve grubbin and charjabug is acquiring either another electric-type such as pikachu or magnemite or obtaining a thunder stone. Thunder stones can be a little expensive, but vikavolt don't need to deplete the stone to evolve (they just absorb the energy it would be radiating anyway). Because of this, the stone can be resold after evolution is completed.

Battle

Despite all of the attention paid to them in recent years, vikavolt usage is still confined to one basic strategy with some slight variations: release a powerful thunderbolt, stall for a little while, release another thunderbolt, continue until defeated. This applies at both professional and amateur levels. Vikavolt have a few offensive options to compliment their electric attacks (bug buzz, hyper beam, hidden power, energy ball, signal beam, air slash) as well as a few options for stalling (dig, volt switch and u-turn, toxic, roost, protect, light screen, substitute).

Some trainers have attempted to use them in a primarily defensive role using their powerful attacks, high speed and decent utility movepool to function as a cleaner and defensive flier on a quick stall team. They have some potential in this role, especially for quick-stall teams that need a dedicated bird killer, but it should be noted that vikavolt are not particularly durable and their recharge period leaves them vulnerable to counter-attacks. This makes them an awkward fit in stall teams of any flavor. In general, vikavolt function best in a mostly offensive role as a bird killer and ranged cannon on balance or offensive teams that need something to pave the way for a melee sweeper.

Charjabug should be battled with sparingly, as using up their electricity supply delays their evolution. Like galvantula, charjabug silk conducts electricity. The default charjabug strategy is to bind opponents and then shock them until they faint or are withdrawn.

Grubbin combat was briefly alluded to above. Their best tactic is to use their silk to set up a melee fight and then use their powerful mandibles to finish the battle quickly. Grubbin have very limited electrical reserves so, even if they can learn some electric attacks, it's better to use non-elemental styles in practice. Avoiding the use of electricity also hastens their evolution.

Acquisition

Grubbin are found in the wild within Blush Mountain Commonwealth Park and on Route 1. In these areas, they may only be captured by trainers on the island challenge who have either registered to participate in the challenge or completed a trial or grand trial within the last three months. There is a limit of one grubbin (or charjabug or vikavolt) per trainer between both sites. Trainers may only sell their grubbin, charjabug or vikavolt from these areas if they complete all four grand trials. Otherwise they must be donated to the Alolan government or released. Grubbin are far less threatened on Akala and found throughout almost all of the island's forests and grasslands. There are substantially fewer restrictions on the capture and use of grubbin captured on Akala. On all islands, they require a Class I license to purchase, adopt or capture.

Charjabug and vikavolt are almost exclusively found in the wild within the Blush Mountain Commonwealth Park on Ula'Ula. They are subject to the same restrictions on sale and capture as grubbin. Charjabug require a Class I license to purchase, adopt or capture. Vikavolt require a Class III license to purchase and adopt, or a Class IV license to capture.

Grubbin are generally only found on the surface during particularly dry periods. Digging into the ground to remove one is illegal within the boundaries of both the Blush Mountain Commonwealth Park and Route 1. On Akala it is usually legal, although the owner of the property should be consulted first.

Charjabug can be found on the ground or attached to trees on Blush Mountain. Vikavolt are generally found in the skies of the area. While it may seem like an obvious choice to capture a vikavolt rather than a charjabug, it is definitely not. Charjabug are far easier to find, capture and tame than vikavolt. In fact, it is recommended that only experienced bug specialists attempt to tame a wild vikavolt as they are very powerful, somewhat prone to violence and slow to trust humans. However, their capture is not currently prohibited.

Breeding

Female grubbin reproduce asexually in the early spring. They lay a batch of roughly one hundred eggs in their tunnel and promptly abandon them. The eggs hatch roughly two weeks later. Newly hatched grubbin are only about three millimeters long when born. Their survival rates are very, very low as they are eaten by some common insects and animals and most burrowing pokémon. There are currently commonwealth-run programs to breed and raise grubbin in captivity and reintroduce them to the wild when they are large enough to have fewer predators.

Mated pairs of vikavolt also reproduce in the early spring. Vikavolt do not have a proper courtship ritual as their mated pairs are determined upon one party's evolution, rather than when both are already grown vikavolt. Their mating, however, does have a set ritual. The vikavolt both climb up to roughly a kilometer above the ocean (the highest they ever fly), latch on to each other, and stop beating their wings. They break away from each other right before impact with the water's surface and, if necessary, climb back up to repeat the process. The male vikavolt digs a hole in the earth and the female lays two to three thousand eggs in it. Then the male covers the eggs and stirs up the air over the hole to blend the topsoil together and cover up the nest's existence. Then both parents leave. They never return to check on their young.

Subspecies

None known.


	16. Rhyperior

a bonus chapter, for _Dreams That You Dreamed_ by The Blue Engine

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Downloading from The Alola Pokedex, Online Appendix . . .

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[b]Rhyperior (Rhyhorn, Rhydon, Rhyfernal)[/b]

[u]Overview[/u]

The existence of pokémon on the bottom of the seafloor was confirmed in the 18th Century by the crew of the H.M.S. Challenger. In the 20th Century, NASA confirmed the existence of pokémon life in the exosphere and on the moon. It is looking like the next frontier in pokémon science will be the study of pokémon life in the mantle, or at least deep in the Earth's crust.

There is a somewhat odd grouping of pokémon who mostly live around volcanoes. Camerupt and torkoal are two well known examples. However, both pokémon are quite capable of living outside of volcanic areas and often migrate from mountain to mountain with periods of activity. The more interesting pokémon are those that cannot long survive outside of fires and lava flows.

Slugma is the classic example of such a pokémon. Almost every active volcanic range on the continental crust (and some on the oceanic) has slugma living there. Yet, they are utterly incapable of moving between volcanoes in any form. Until the 21st Century, scientists had no good theory on how they were so widespread despite having no clear means of spreading. And then rhyfernal appeared in Alola.

Rhyperior are found on every continent except Antarctica. It was known for some time that rhydon had two branching evolutions and that the less common one was associated with fire and volcanoes. However, very little was known about that evolution, rhyfernal, and there was debate as to whether or not they were a separate species altogether. Then, despite there being no documented rhydon on alola at the time, a half dozen rhyfernal appeared around lava flows on Ula'Ula. Then the population laid eggs. And rhyhorn hatched from them. Now there is an apparently natural rhyhorn population on Ula'Ula, thousands of kilometers away from their nearest natural range.

The logical explanation, however wild it may seem, is that rhyfernal travel far beneath the Earth's surface from volcano to volcano. It is possible that they spend almost all of their lives in the mantle and only come to the surface to reproduce. Notably, the stones harvested from one of the dead rhyfernal that surfaced on Ula'Ula were very similar in composition to the Earth's mantle.

It is unclear what life in a world of tremendous heat and pressure would look like. Both rhyfernal and slugma are essentially just sentient clumps of lava held together by unknown forces, although the former has rocky organs in the interior and a rocky armor on their exterior. Other pokémon known to live or travel deep in the Earth include carbink and steelix, both very durable Pokémon.

Beyond their relationship to the world below, rhydon are always popular on the competitive battling scene and rhyhorn are one of the most popular pokémon in zoos worldwide. The recent classification of rhyperior as a native Alolan species has dramatically lowered the barriers for the importation and ownership of the pokémon on the islands. While the wild population is still protected, trainers with a high enough license and enough money can get their hands on an imported rhyhorn.

Elsewhere in the world, rhyperior habitat has slowly been shrinking. Rhyhorn and rhyperior in particular often become a nuisance to local communities. And, given their very slow maturation rates, one bad season can keep rhyperior out of an area for centuries even with no further barriers to reentry.

[u]Physiology[/u]

Rhyhorn, rhydon and rhyperior are all classified as dual rock- and ground-types by the Department of Agriculture for their and mineral exteriors and low level terrakinesis. The ground-typing is somewhat controversial as their terrakinesis is not substantially more common or powerful than it is in most rock-types as a whole. However, because at least one member of their evolutionary line lives almost exclusively underground, the typing has become less controversial in recent years.

Rhyfernal is classified as a dual rock- and fire-type. A secondary ghost-typing instead of rock is being actively considered, but the final decision is on hold pending the release of the full study Department of the Interior study on rhyfernal.

Rhyhorn are large quadrupeds with short stubby legs and big, triangular heads with small eyes. Their most interesting feature is the (usually) slate grey plate armor that surrounds their body. It is composed of over three dozen separate plates which interlock at odd angles throughout the body to form a series of spines and ridges. While rhyhorn's joints are not directly covered, at least one protruding ridge usually extends above every major joint. Rhyhorn armor is very similar in composition to granite, although the exact makeup (and color) varies depending upon the most common rocks in the rhyhorn's habitat. Beneath the armor, rhyhorn skin is not substantially more durable than that of a human.

Rhydon, by contrast, have very tough and thick skin that can heal almost all surface-level injuries within a few days. They have much less plate armor coverage than their juvenile form. They use the lessened burden to be much more maneuverable than rhyhorn, even if they aren't as fast in a direct charge. Rhydon are almost always bipedal, although they will drop to all fours against some short but tough opponents.

For whatever reason, rhydon have more variable colors in both their armor and their skin than rhyhorn. However, their armor and most of their skin usually remains slate grey. The exceptions are a patch of skin on their belly and their (now more prominent) horn, both of which are usually some shade of light brown or yellow, although red, dark brown and even pale blue and green shades have been documented.

Their limbs are still relatively short, but their hindlegs are now much thicker and stronger than they were as a rhyhorn. All of their limbs grow three short, sharp and hard claws. Rhydon have a much larger tail than rhyhorn to help them balance. This tail can grow up to two-thirds as long as the rest of their body and is quite bulky and muscular. In addition to balance, tail swings are their primary means of defense in the wild.

Rhyperior remain bipedal, but in many other ways they resemble rhyhorn more than rhydon. They are very bulky, almost round creatures. Almost every square inch of their body, except for one small region right beneath their head, is covered in plate armor. Unlike rhyhorn, almost all of their body is covered in a single skin-like sheet of stone rather than a network of interlocking plates. That armor also has other rock ridges and plates protruding from it to make rhyperior all but invulnerable. Their tail is thinner and shorter than a rhydon's. It also has a large club on the end. A rhyperior's horn is about two to three times longer than it was as a rhydon.

Rhyperior's most significant physical change is in their arms. The organic parts of rhyperior arms are rather long and slender, especially when compared to rhydon. But they have some of the most extensive mineral armor on the entire body surrounding them. They have two large spears sticking back from the elbow, giving them a means of covering the arm joints and defending against attacks from behind. They also have a hole in their palm with powerful muscles lining it. This serves as a cannon, allowing them to launch small stones or even geodude large distances at high speeds.

The number of defensive mechanisms rhyperior have is somewhat puzzling. Rhyhorn have very few predators anywhere in their vast range. In some more mountainous areas, they may deal with vanilluxe, tyranitar and metagross. On the plains the occasional grass-type such as tangrowth might try to pick on a weak rhyhorn, or one that has become separated from their wreck. But these are all risky fights for the assailant. Rhydon have no natural predators. And yet, at some point macroevolution guided rhydon towards regrowing much of their armor as they age. This makes them too slow to protect the weaker members of their wreck from fast predators such as metagross, vanilluxe and tangrowth. And rhydon deal with tyranitar about as well as rhyperior do. The reason for the regrowth of armor as a rhydon ages and evolves is currently unknown.

Rhyhorn, rhydon and rhyperior are primarily herbivorous and graze on grasses and shrubs. They have been observed eating rocks, but it is unclear if this is for the minerals to reinforce their shell or whether they gain actual energy from the consumption.

If rhyfernal did not lay eggs that became rhyhorn, they almost certainly would not be classified as related. The other stages of the evolutionary line are conventional mammals beneath their armor. Rhyfernal appear to be almost entirely inorganic. They have a similar silhouette to rhydon and, shortly after evolution, they might look nearly identical except for glowing eyes and scorch marks across their body. As they grow older and experience battle, rhyfernal gain a brittle outer shell of an obsidian-like mineral. They also have several 'organs' of similar composition inside of them. A rhyfernal that forgoes battle for long enough begins to develop a thicker shell and even several erratically placed horn-like growths on their face. They don't regrow eyes after the first time their head is shattered.

Between their shell and organs, rhyfernal are filled with 'blood.' This fluid is a substance chemically similar to basalt lava. It appears to have small complex mineral structures reminiscent of cells floating inside of it. Their blood is kept viscous at a temperate between 500 and 700 degrees Celsius. When their shell is damaged, rhyfernal sometimes activate an explosion inside of them that blast off portions of the shell and a shower of extremely hot blood at whatever harmed them. This blast material can move at supersonic speeds and reach distances of over 20 meters. After detonation, rhyfernal will seek out minerals to eat.

Until they were observed reproducing, it was not believed that rhyfernal were alive in any real sense. Instead, the leading theory was that they were a strange sort of ghost pokémon that possessed the corpse of a rhydon that had burned to death. Their may still be some truth to this: some channelers and mediums can connect with rhyfernal, and the species strongly dislikes shadow-based and spectral attacks. It is entirely possible that rhyfernal may technically be a different species from rhyperior, albeit one that relies upon the same physical body. The only real precedent for this, shedinja, is treated as part of the same species as ninjask.

Rhyperior can live for over 250 years. They can reach heights of 2.5 meters and weigh over 3500 kilograms.

Estimates of rhyfernal life expectancy in the wild range from two to five years after emergence. In captivity, they have only been kept alive for three years after evolution before succumbing to hypothermia (see Illness). Five of the six rhyfernal that emerged on Ula'Ula roughly a decade ago are dead. It is entirely unclear how long they had been alive before they surfaced. Rhyfernal have been documented reaching heights slightly over two meters. The largest rhyfernal corpse ever weighed had a mass of 2400 kilograms; it is understandably difficult to weigh a live rhyfernal.

[u]Behavior[/u]

Rhyperior social structures vary slightly between subspecies (see Subspecies). Montane rhyperior wrecks tend to contain either one mated pair of rhyperior, a sibling group of rhyhorn, or a small group of rhydon. Sometimes rhydon live alone. In grassland habitats where food is abundant, wrecks can be much larger. The largest one ever observed in the wild was an American rhyhorn wreck containing 41 rhyhorn, 11 rhydon and 3 rhyperior. Wrecks of around 25 individuals are far more common, though.

Despite their large social groups, rhyperior hierarchies are very loose. Young children respect adults. Beyond that, no single member appears to take orders from any other member. Fights between members of a wreck are quite common. If the fight escalates, the other wreck members form a ring around the main two parties. They battle and the loser leaves, sometimes taking pokémon that were close to them along.

Rhyhorn are known for their lack of intelligence. This stereotype is more or less accurate. They have nasty tempers but tend to forget grudges very quickly. Some research suggests they often forget the reason they started charging before they hit their target. As such, most disputes that escalate enough to warrant a wreck-sanctioned fight are between rhydon and rhyperior. Very young rhyhorn are somewhat curious; after a few years of age, they essentially only perform vital life functions and occasional charges at things that upset or intrigue them.

Rhydon are somewhat more intelligent than their juvenile forms. They are also less aggressive and tend to thump their tail against the ground and roar before attacking. Some wild rhydon have been observed making crude pyramids out of boulders. Captive rhydon given rectangular blocks have also been documented stacking them, unstacking them, and then stacking them again for days on end before they lose interest. When they were subsequently given blocks of differing shapes, they regained interest and played with them until no new blocks had been introduced within five to eight days. This may be a way to explore the capabilities of their arms after decades of being quadrupedal rhyhorn.

Rhyhorn generally only charge at predators, attackers or creatures they are unfamiliar with (and thus suspect could be predators). Rhyperior are far more aggressive. In fact, rhyperior have been known to load stones into their cannons and fire directly into flocks of birds. This apparently serves as target practice. Older rhyperior sometimes attack and kill other herbivores sharing the same range or destroy man-made structures in their habitat. Or natural structures in their habitat: rhyperior have been observed snapping trees and repeatedly charging into cliffs in the wild with no apparent provocation.

Rhyfernal spend almost all of their available time sleeping inside of fires or lava. Their ranges are restricted to the areas immediately around active volcanoes because of this. They seldom rise up to the surface, preferring to live a little deeper down in warmer areas with higher pressure. When they do surface, they seldom interact with organic life. Instead they briefly survey the area and go back down within the hour. Their body temperatures are simply unsustainable on the surface for long (see Illness). The Ula'Ula colony have sometimes killed potential predators for their rhyhorn offspring while on the surface or engaged in some very brief cuddling with their young once they had grown enough armor to withstand their parents' heat.

[u]Husbandry[/u]

Rhyhorn and rhydon captivity has a centuries long history on multiple continents. They have been used for war, sport, companionship and transportation. Most of these rhyhorn were captive bred by noble houses that passed down the same rhyhorn for generations. For a variety of reasons, they make very poor pets for individual trainers.

To start with, a newly born rhyhorn can live for centuries. Rhyhorn, rhydon and rhyperior are neither terribly social nor intelligent. They are not fun to cuddle with. They require large open spaces and either near-constant human affection or other members of their species to socialize with. They can eat up to 15% of their considerable body weight a week. Your heirs will probably not want your rhyhorn. They will probably not want to deal with the hassle of finding a trainer, zoo or safari park willing to take the pokémon. Rhyhorn husbandry is really best left to the professionals. But, if you are an experienced pokémon trainer who wants to take the risk (or are a trainer who has inherited one and has no desire to give it away), a single trainer can make it work.

A rhyhorn more than a decade or two old will require either several acres of or must be let out of their pokéball during frequent, long distance walks. Once a rhyhorn reaches a height of roughly one meter at the withers they can carry a human and barely notice the added weight. But their hard, ridge-riddled body means that even the best saddles will not make the riding experience comfortable.

Rhyhorn, rhydon and rhyperior should be allowed to graze on their own if adequate land is available. If not, they should be fed a mix of grasses, hay and roots with occasional leaves mixed in. They should be fed roughly 2.5% of their body weight a day until they reach the age of ten, at which point they can be fed 2%. If the pokémon is frequently used in battle, add roughly 0.3% per day to their food.

All three stages drink water, but most subspecies can go up to two weeks without drinking if they need to. Do not push their limits. Instead, fill their water trough every three to five days.

Rhyhorn, rhydon and rhyperior also require stones to eat to replenish their armor. Their favorites are slate, shale and granite. They will also eat sandstone, limestone and basalt. Large quartz crystals and geodes fascinate them and a rhyhorn will often spend a few days protecting and examining their new toy before they get bored and wander off.

As mentioned in behavior, rhydon can use some large bulky objects of varying shapes as toys. They should be given enrichment once a month. Enrichment can either be toys added to their habitat, rotation to a new paddock or supervised exploration of a new area. Rhyhorn do not want toys and will often just destroy any that they are given. Rhyperior enrichment should be handled on a case by case basis; some can be quite clever and playful, most will just smash anything in their enclosure at the first opportunity.

It is easiest to contain rhyhorn by digging water-filled moats over two meters deep around almost the entirety of their enclosure (although this does not work for the Japanese cave rhyhorn, see Subspecies). Barring that, rhyhorn can typically be contained by bland solid metal, stone or wood walls at least two meters high. Walls with slats are a bad choice as rhyhorn can see things that upset them on the other side, charge through the fence and then wander off. Electric fences are useless at deterring them.

Rhydon are best held in place by the promise of food and trust in their trainer. Frequent enrichment and a lifelong bond with humans help. If that cannot be arranged, moats around the entire enclosure will usually do the trick.

Rhyperior containment is so difficult that currently only the San Diego Safari Park, the Lumiose Zoological Park and the National Zoo of Chile exhibit them. The former relies upon providing them with so much space that they seldom run against the boundaries (which are moats over four meters deep). The latter two have very old and calm rhyperior that have continuously been held in zoos since they were rhyhorn.

A handful of professional trainers, often from old families with long histories of rhydon training, keep one on their team. They say that the channeled violence of frequent battle keeps them docile outside of fights and training. Many countries refuse to allow trainers to release rhyperior to the wild given the public safety risk they propose. Others only allow it in very remote or protected areas. The difficulty of caring for a rhyperior, lack of trainers or zoos willing to take a rhyperior in, and the inability to easily release them leads to most rhyperior being euthanized shortly after evolution.

Rhyfernal captivity is a new field and should not be attempted by anyone but zoos and scientists looking for a massive challenge. The obstacles to caring for them include a very poor understanding of their diet, a need to constantly maintain a pool of liquid rock without melting the rest of the enclosure, and the difficulty of building heatproof the barriers that can also take an explosion or direct charge. It is impossible for humans to enter the rhyfernal's exhibit under any circumstances, and they tend to break the drones some zoos have used to care for them remotely.

If a trainer's rhydon evolves into rhyfernal (see Evolution) and the pokémon returns, they will require a very expensive magma ball that the pokémon will only be able to leave for less than an hour at a time. They will likely be under constant stress from their environment and will be entirely unable to get physically close to their trainer due to the heat radiating off of them. Additionally, scientists have very little idea what rhyfernal need to survive. At best, the creature will be kept alive but in emotional and physical pain for several years. If a rhyfernal returns after evolution, it is best for everyone involved to tell them to go back to their volcano.

Rhyhorn don't tend to mind pokéballs as long as their exercise, food, water, and socialization needs are met. Rhydon are a little more skeptical but occasional use, especially when they are hurt, is almost always tolerated. Rhyperior tend to hate pokéballs, but rhyperior that have been raised with them (or at least apricorn balls) since birth tend to at least tolerate them when used sparingly by a human they trust.

[u]Illness[/u]

Rhyhorn often struggle with health issues between their skin and their armor. Sometimes their armor cuts or pinches their body and it is difficult for them to do anything about it. Occasionally their skin will get infected. These problems are generally accompanied by symptoms such as lethargy, pained groans (especially while moving), and trying to ram one part of their body against other objects to get the armor off.

Most issues of this nature require surgery to temporarily remove a portion of the rhyhorn's armor. Outside of Alola, this can generally only be performed by large mammal specialists in major cities. The popularity of rockruff in Alola means that far more veterinarians are willing to perform the surgery. This makes it much cheaper and easier to schedule than in almost any other part of the United States.

Rhyfernal blood is mostly composed of molten stone. If the blood ever cools too much, the rhyfernal literally starts to turn into a statue. When a rhyfernal makes pained noises or tries to bury into the ground, it should be immediately withdrawn into a magma ball. The same goes for a rhyfernal that has just partially exploded and exposed their bloodstream to air. These 'blood clots' are usually incurable and fatal.

[u]Evolution[/u]

Rhyhorn development is slow and mostly consists of gradual transformations. In the wild rhyhorn typically reach their full size between 70 and 100 years old and are considered evolved between 90 and 120 years old. The formal demarcation line between rhyhorn and rhydon is their first time standing on their hind legs for more than one hour. Rhyperior have a more abrupt evolution, usually around 180 years old. They dig deep into the Earth and evolve beneath the surface under high pressure (however, they get nowhere close to leaving the crust). Roughly five weeks later they emerge in the exact same spot, evolved. They will not evolve in even simulated high heat and pressure environments in captivity and must dig to evolve.

Like many pokémon, both of these evolutions can occur much sooner than they naturally would in captivity than in the wild with few adverse effects. If a pokémon battles a lot or is under constant environmental stress, they undergo metamorphoses faster. The exact mechanism that triggers this in hundreds of different pokémon species across the world is unknown at this time.

Rhydon that live near volcanoes will often break away from their wreck and move towards the volcano when it is time for them to evolve. They will climb most of the way up the peak and then begin to dig down into it until they hit magma (if there is lava on the surface they will wade through it and then dig into the source). At some point most of their flesh burns away and they are left with armor, magma and a handful of pseudo-cells and organs that are silicon-based rather than organic. They will emerge two to three months later. Sometimes they will seek out their wreck like newly emerged rhyperior do. Captive rhyfernal may seek out their old trainer. They usually will not do either and will simply live alone near the volcano they evolved under until they die or are captured and taken away.

[u]Battle[/u]

Rhydon is one of the dominant forces on the global competitive battling scene. They are durable enough to take all but the heaviest of hits and keep going. While rhydon are not fast, they can summon relatively powerful earthquake attacks with training and their tail swipes can hit with forces well over 100,000 Newtons. This makes them one of the quintessential physical tanks in competitive battling.

They compete for their role most directly against aggron, golem, steelix and tyranitar, all but the last of which also have a large global range in the modern area. The former three are all more durable but less powerful than rhydon. Aggron have a better temperament but they can be more expensive to care for. Steelix post-evolution can also be very moody and might reject their trainer. Golem are relatively cheap to feed and don't require as much space as rhydon do, but they are very mean and known to reject commands altogether in battle. Tyranitar are usually regarded as better than rhydon in almost every way (better movepool, better speed, better durability, better temperament, just a little less power). However, they are difficult to obtain and, like steelix, sometimes reject their old trainer after evolution.

Rhydon struggle against powerful water-types, grass-types or anything strong enough to shatter their armor. While their skin is hard to burst and their internal organs are well protected, sufficiently sharp claws can still draw blood and cause distracting pain.

Unlike most slow, grounded pokémon, rhydon win most of their matchups against birds. Their stone edges have decent range and rank among some of the strongest of any pokémon. And simple physics means that any bird generating the kind of projectile force needed to hurt a rhydon is probably knocking itself out of the air from the recoil. Fliers with great physical bulk, powerful melee attacks and enough speed to dodge tail swipes, or birds with powerful ranged grass- or water-type attacks can still break a rhydon.

Zoning tactics, that is, staying far away from rhydon and lobbing projectiles at them, are also not usually effective. Rhydon earthquakes will usually do more damage to their opponent than their opponent will do to them with projectiles. Extreme type advantage somewhat offsets this, but it's usually still a risky endeavor.

The best way to deal with a rhydon is either to run a rain team or to pack a check such as gliscor, skarmory, venusaur, tangrowth, swampert, machamp, conkeldurr, metagross or kabutops. Rhydon has no true counters and can steamroll unprepared teams, but their potential usefulness is limited from game-breaking to merely top-tier by the sheer number of popular checks they have.

Rhyperior is arguably better than rhydon on the competitive scene. Their loss of speed is offset by devastating projectile attacks from their cannon, even greater bulk, and a sight boost in power over their adolescent form. There are simply very few trainers with a rhyperior. They join metagross and abysscull on the list of pokémon that would define the global metagame if more than handful of high-level trainers had one. They battle in much the same way as rhydon, although they prefer full body tackles to tail swings. Their cannon also gives them some additional anti-bird options and a way to take out pokémon that insist on playing a zoning game against them.

If you have a rhydon or rhyperior that's fully trained and obeys your orders, you're probably halfway to the big leagues already. But if you do come into the possession of one as an amateur, their competitive battling tactics work wonders on the island challenge. Rhyhorn are best used with a mix of devastating charges, seismic attacks and the occasional rock slide or stone edge. They can remain viable throughout the entire league challenge without evolving.

A few academic and trade journal articles have been written on rhyfernal battle strategy. Two professional battlers have temporarily wielded one. For now, they are essentially a novelty pick on the battling scene due to the difficulty of capturing, caring for and training one. They are also quite fragile and can easily die in battle if their shell is worn down or they blast away too much of their body. Golem and electrode are far more practical as explosion users, which seems to be the main use of rhyfernal in the metagame at present.

[u]Acquisition[/u]

All subspecies of rhyhorn and rhydon can be purchased or adopted with a Class IV license. At present, capture from the wild population is illegal. Rhyperior and rhyfernal require a Class V license to purchase, adopt or possess. Trainers without a Class V license whose rhydon evolve will be unable to keep their pokémon.

At present the rhyfernal and rhyhorn population on Ula'Ula live in the sparsely populated eastern mountains and interior desert. Trainers are strongly encouraged to observe them from a distance, if they must observe them at all.

[u]Breeding[/u]

When two rhyperior living in different wrecks encounter each other, they engage in battle. These fights can sometimes take up to thirty hours to complete due to the sheer bulk of both combatants. If the pokémon are of different sexes, the winner of the battle may choose to reproduce with the loser. Curiously, both sexes of rhyperior have the ability to carry eggs to development after mating. The loser of the fight almost always carries the eggs.

After a roughly two-year pregnancy, the pregnant rhyperior delivers about ten bowling-ball-sized eggs. The rhyperior will abandon their wreck and stay with the eggs until they hatch roughly one month later, almost never eating or drinking during the duration. They may then seek out their old wreck with their young in tow or try to find a different one.

Rhyperior eggs are very tough and require the parent to break them open when they hear the young begin to move inside. Because of their durability, rhyperior make almost no attempt to bury or conceal the eggs. The presence of a very protective rhyperior nearby also deters other pokémon from attempting to break into and eat them.

In captivity, rhyperior breeding requires introducing two rhyperior with very little prior contact with each other and being able to weather the property damage that tends to come with an all-out rhyperior fight. The young tend to survive to birth and adulthood far more frequently in captivity than in the wild, if only because the rhyperior can be fed while they guard the eggs and the entire wreck will probably be staying in the same general area to also keep an eye on them.

Do not attempt to incubate rhyperior eggs away from the parent or take very young rhyhorn out of eyesight. Rhyperior always care more about their babies than their trainer.

It is entirely unclear how rhyfernal reproduce since they don't appear to be organic life and yet they lay eggs that produce carbon-based young. They do reproduce, and that's all that can be said about the matter for now.

[u]Subspecies[/u]

Generally speaking, the default rhyperior mentioned in this entry is a montane rhyperior. There are over a dozen recognized rhyperior subspecies and this guide has simply attempted to cover the things that are generally true for all of them.

There are a variety of plains species that have evolved away from the mountains. They can broadly be grouped into desert and grassland rhyperior subspecies. The plains subspecies, such as the American, Tanzanian and Pampas rhyperior tend to be larger, more docile and more social than their montane and desert cousins.

Desert rhyperior such as the Arabian, Gobi, Uluru and Mojave subspecies, tend to be the smallest. Their wrecks almost never contain more than six individuals. They have the thinnest armor of all subspecies and shy away from fights whenever possible. Some Arabian rhyperior have been observed killing and eating other pokémon in times of prolonged drought.

All subspecies are otherwise quite similar in anatomy and behavior, and they have similar care requirements and battle strategies. Grassland rhyhorn are the most common in captivity. The American rhyhorn in particular is the cheapest and most available in Alola. They are mid-sized rhyhorn, just a little larger than the montane rhyhorn covered in the rest of this entry. Their armor is a little thicker than average and is relatively smooth. Sometimes they will partially burrow into the ground and become rather inactive during the winter. Captive born American rhyhorn are among the friendliest and are probably the best subspecies to start with.

The next most common subspecies in captivity is the European rhyhorn. They are quite fast and agile compared to the other subspecies and are a little more intelligent than the average. This makes them well suited for battle and able to obey commands and recognize people more easily than montane or American rhyperior. However, European rhyhorn also require far more socialization than most subspecies. They are the most common rhyhorn and rhydon adopted by trainers who have already started their professional pokémon journey.

The Tanzanian rhyhorn is the largest subspecies in the world, which makes them popular with collectors. They have experienced considerable decline in the wild because of this. Tanzanian rhyhorn are generally apathetic towards humans and require a very large amount of food. As such, they are not recommended.

The Japanese cave rhyhorn has also experienced a boost in demand after the Malie Safari Park began exhibiting them. They are some of the least intelligent and strongest rhyhorn of them all, which makes them a very bad fit for all but the most experienced of trainers. They also require burrowing spaces, ponds and rivers, and large, natural-looking shelters. Cave rhyhorn are quite water resistant and have even been known to ford rivers by holding their breath and walking along the bottom. This gives them a measure of popularity on the competitive battling scene, but also means that moats are not an effective containment device. Even moats with very steep walls will fail as the rhyhorn will simply use seismic attacks until the barriers collapse enough to be walked up or dug through.


	17. Sudowoodo

**Sudowoodo (Bonsly)**

Overview 

Sudowoodo are very easy to care for. They are also more mobile and personable than most other mineral pokémon, making them a good first step into caring for more dangerous and less friendly mineral pokémon such as golem, gigalith, and tyranitar. Bonsly are quite powerful for their size and age and sudowoodo are able to keep pace with most of the competition. They are one of the few pokémon whose ownership is more common in older populations than younger ones closer to the island challenge and with more energy to spare. Still, they have their fans among the younger generations.

Physiology

Both bonsly and sudowoodo are classified as pure rock types by the Department of Agriculture. Neither ruling is disputed.

Most pokémon are physiologically similar to some non-pokémon form of life. So far this guide as discussed mammals, birds, insects, and cephalopods. Even some extraterrestrial lifeforms resemble these basic archetypes.

Some pokémon, especially the ones strongly linked to humans or human society, don't resemble any known non-pokémon organism. Many of these are inanimate objects brought to life by some supernatural force. Others are truly manmade pokémon. And a final group have completely unknown physiologies and origins. Sudowoodo is one such pokémon.

While it superficially resembles a tree and is capable of something akin to photosynthesis, sudowoodo is emphatically not a plant. It is part of a group known as 'mineral pokémon.' Pokémon in this class tend to be chemosynthetic and inorganic, that is, they are not based on carbon like all non-pokémon life on Earth. Sudowoodo, in particular, is a silicon-based creature.

It isn't presently known how mineral pokémon evolved, or if they undergo macroevolution at all. The most widely accepted theory at present is based on physiologically similar automaton pokémon such as porygon-z and golurk: at some point, every mineral pokémon may have had a creator and they have simply been self-replicating ever since. Alternatively, they may have been formed from chemical reactions deep in the Earth akin to the ones that created muk on the surface. The latter theory has yet to gain traction for the simple reason that all chemically formed pokémon known at present are mostly liquid, while almost all mineral pokémon have very dry interiors.

Bonsly are dark brown in color across their body unless otherwise noted. They have two short legs supporting a roughly conical body. There is a rim roughly a quarter of the way up their body. Bonsly have three yellow spots forming a triangular face. The bottom two spots contain the bonsly's eyes. They have a mouth placed right below their eyes. The mouth is thin and horizontal. It also does not connect to their digestive or respiratory tracts and is entirely used for vocalization. The pokémon produces sounds by vibrating small crystals inside of their mouth that superficially resemble growing teeth.

At the top of their body, bonsly have three stems that branch off from each other. Each stem has a green sphere at the end. While these resemble leaves at first glance, they are actually complex and mostly hollow crystalline lattices. They do appear to serve some function akin to photosynthesis, using the heat of the sun to break up the compounds they use for the chemosynthetic reactions that actually power their body.

Sudowoodo are taller and leaner than their juvenile form. The core of the body is a trunk-like rectangle that's surprisingly flexible for being similar to stone in composition. The bottom two-thirds of their trunk is littered in seemingly random patterns of yellow dots. At about the two-thirds mark, two arms branch out on opposite sides of the trunk. These arms each have a trio of green orbs at the end. Above their arms, sudowoodo have two eyes and a mouth that are quite similar to those of bonsly. They have another stem that branches out into two other, orbless stems on top of their body.

In Alola, the typical sudowoodo grows to heights of around one meter and masses a little over 30 kilograms. They can live for forty to sixty years in captivity and ten to thirty years in the wild.

All forms of sudowoodo are chemosynthetic. They absorb minerals from the ground and break them down through a complex series of chemical reactions to produce energy and new material for their body. Sudowoodo and bonsly store long coiled tendrils within their main body. These tendrils are covered in small crystals structures that allow them to sense and pull minerals out of the ground. They release their tendrils from a small hole on the bottom of their body.

Sudowoodo tendrils can reach lengths of up to six meters long and they can deploy nearly a dozen at a time. The tendrils absorb any silica they can find in the soil, along with trace metals and some salts. The pokémon excretes water with unneeded chemicals. Sudowoodo hate water and only need very small quantities of it. Adults can drain it through their root cavity. Bonsly cannot and must release it through their eyes in the form of tears. Too much water can be fatal for all stages, although it tends to only kill bonsly in captivity.

Behavior

Both stages prefer to find a shaded grove of low trees and stand motionless. They deploy their roots and simply soak in sunlight and minerals until they are disturbed. Sudowoodo have almost no predators because their body is mostly rock. The few pokémon that do eat rocks tend to hunt the ones that won't run away from them. Because of this, sudowoodo tend to only move to avoid rain.

Sudowoodo breathe through pores on their skin. Those pores can let rain in. An adult can usually drain water faster than they take it in, provided that they find some shelter like a cliff or a dense forest. Rain is quite often fatal for bonsly. Sudowoodo parents are constantly vigilant for rain and will usually move their babies to shelter if there are clouds outside. In Alola, most sudowoodo stay very close to caves or abandoned buildings during the rainy season.

On Akala and in the interior of Melemele, sudowoodo often join trevenant forests. The trevenant can use Forest's Curse to temporarily make sudowoodo more resistant to rain and water-type attacks. In turn, sudowoodo deal with the insects, fire-types, and birds that might pick on the slow-moving trevenant. The introduction of sudowoodo to Alola led to a partial reversal of the post-conquest decline in trevenant numbers.

Husbandry 

Sudowoodo are very simple to care for. They require soil and sunshine and both are usually quite easy to find. If a sudowoodo is raised entirely indoors or is confined to a small space of earth for a long period of time they will require supplements. Sun lamps can be purchased in virtually all Pokémon Centers. Traveling trainers stuck in prolonged rainstorms can usually talk the presiding nurse into letting their pokémon use the dartrix photosynthesis room. The owls usually enjoy having an interesting new perch; the sudowoodo tends to stay motionless. It is unknown if this is out of fear or instinct.

Fertilizer designed specifically for sudowoodo and bonsly can be purchased at most specialty pokémon or botany supply stores. A sudowoodo raised permanently indoors should be given a circular pool at least half a meter deep and two meters wide filled with fertilized soil. Sudowoodo raised outside should always have a place to retreat to in the event of a sudden rainstorm.

Sudowoodo and bonsly are perfectly fine being stored in pokéballs so long as they are allowed to filter soil at least six hours a day and receive at least 20 hours of sunlight a week.

Bonsly become very stressed if they are separated from their parent or trainer for more than an hour, especially if they are outside. Until they evolve their trainer should make every effort to stay nearby while the bonsly is outside of their pokéball. Bonsly are not good at filtering water out of the soil they consume, so a trainer should generally carry around roughly two kilograms of fertilized soil and a small pool in case a rainstorm permeates the soil.

Illness

If a bonsly cries for more than a few minutes a day, try giving them a new pan of soil and spending more time with them for the next week. If they do not stop crying for more than ten minutes a day when given dry soil and socialization, consult a veterinarian.

If a sudowoodo becomes unusually active or inactive, you should also consult a veterinarian. It is difficult to cure most diseases mineral pokémon suffer from, but seeking medical care in a timely fashion can often cure or help manage minor problems.

Evolution

Bonsly reach their adult size in roughly two years. The formal demarcation line between bonsly and sudowoodo is the bonsly's rim becoming less than one centimeter thick at its thinnest.

Battle

Sudowoodo currently have no presence in competitive battling. They are outclassed in their role as fast rock-types by several fossil pokémon. Even before fossil pokémon became common on the competitive scene, they still only had a very small niche in some regional circuits.

Sudowoodo are surprisingly agile and powerful combatants. Conversely, they are quite frail for a mineral pokémon. They function mainly as a melee fighter with enough bulk to take a hit or two. This puts them in the role of the typical fighting-type in battle.

For their size and age, bonsly are quite strong and durable. Their main use in battle is to trade powerful physical moves, mixed in with tears to throw opponents off guard if the tide turns against the bonsly.

Both sudowoodo and bonsly are quite good for the first two islands, mediocre on the third and are very somewhat outclassed by the fourth island's trials. However, a clever trainer commanding a sudowoodo with enough training can still make the pokémon pull its weight.

Acquisition

Bonsly can be purchased, captured or adopted with a Class II license. As a note of caution, a wild bonsly will usually have a parent sudowoodo nearby ready to defend their young if you get to close. They can be adopted from several shelters on Melemele and Akala. The shelters in eastern Hau'oli often have them on hand. Additionally, botany supply stores will often have bonsly for sale.

Sudowoodo can be purchased, captured or adopted with a Class I license. They can be caught in most of the same places bonsly can be found. They are less common in shelters and very few stores sell adult sudowoodo. Because they are considerably less difficult to care for than bonsly, trainers on an island challenge are advised to simply seek out and capture a wild sudowoodo.

The sudowoodo's ease of care makes them popular among older trainers who want companionship and purpose but are unable to keep up with an active pokémon. The reason there are wild sudowoodo in Alola is the multitude of heirs who released their deceased parent's sudowoodo rather than continuing to care for it. At present their population is quite small on Melemele and mostly focused around a cluster retirement homes on Route 1. Their population has grown larger and more rapidly on Akala.

Sudowoodo have not been a priority for the DNR. They barely impact the environment don't prey on local species and actually provide an ecological benefit by stirring up and enriching the soil and protecting endangered trevenant . There have even been talks about deliberately introducing them to Ula'Ula to help protect the forests on the northern half of the island.

Breeding

During the late wet season, sudowoodo may seek each other out. Sudowoodo do not have distinct sexes until they mate, at which point, seemingly at random, one will begin to adopt male anatomy and the other will adopt female reproductive organs. This transformation usually takes two to three weeks. When the process is complete, the sudowoodo mate. The female lays four to six eggs about the size of a golf ball a week later. The male will bury the eggs and the parents will guard them in shifts until they hatch roughly three weeks later. Parents will stay with their children for roughly another year, at which point all members of the family will go their separate ways.

Subspecies

While sudowoodo living in ranges with different soil composition sometimes have different compositions, they are not different subspecies. A bonsly descended from two parents in Kalos will develop a near-identical composition to Alolan sudowoodo if raised in Alola. Like many of the mineral pokémon in the archipelago, Alolan sudowoodo are tougher but slower than their continental counterparts.


	18. Blissey

**Blissey (Happiny, Chansey)**

Overview

There is credible evidence that blissey was the first pokémon to be tamed. Stone tablets with drawings of blissey in a human camp, and even wearing human clothes, have been found that dated back to 18,000 B.C.E. They were one of the only domesticated pokémon exclusively found in Australia prior to the creation of the mass produced pokéball.

As difficult as it is to believe now, blissey were not introduced outside of Australia until 1842 C.E. Even the wayfarers could not bring them from island to island without stressing the pokémon to the point of death. The pokéball and large sailing ships rectified the problem. At present there are wild populations on every continent except Antarctica.

Blissey is the quintessential healing pokémon of the modern world. Their egg is one of the most potent psychoactive drugs currently known and it is not physically addictive. It also contains every enzyme and growth factor needed for healing in humans. In pokémon it rapidly accelerates the regeneration abilities of almost all mammalian species, most non-mammalian organic species, and some mineral or otherwise non-organic pokémon.

Most Alolan Pokémon Centers have now added blissey or chansey to their staff, either in addition to more traditional options such as comfey and alomomola or as the sole pokémon on hand. They can also be found in the wild on all four islands, although finding or capturing one can be a difficult prospect.

In addition to their use as healers, blissey are the premier special walls in competitive battling. Their combination of power and utility has led to extensive capture (legal and illegal) in their native and international ranges, making the remaining wild blissey very skittish around humans.

Physiology

All stages of the evolutionary line are classified as pure normal-types. There has been a substantial push in recent years to reclassify them as dual normal- and fairy-types. However, they only meet two of the common traits of fairies (healing powers, reliance on charming or emotional manipulation, propensity for playing pranks, extraterrestrial origin, ties to the moon, weakness to iron). Most other fairies meet at least three of the above factors. The Department of Agriculture is currently reviewing its ruling to consider the evidence for a fairy-typing.

Happiny are divided into two distinct segments. The lower half of happiny is covered in a hard, dark pink shell. Only their short, stubby legs protrude from the bottom. The shell has a somewhat loose flap of white skin on top of it which happiny often form into a pouch.

The upper half of happiny's body is covered in short light pink fur. They have two arms, which are even shorter and stubbier than their legs. The face is proportionately large and consists of a mouth and a pair of eyes. They have two darker cheek spots on their face. Towards the top of the head they have three short, hard lumps. These are primarily used for sensory purposes. They have a dark pink 'bead' on the very top of their head with a messy, curly ponytail extending from it.

Chansey have been described as being shaped like an oval, or an egg. They have two pink feet, which are substantially longer than those of a happiny. They also have a tail that can extend for up to thirty centimeters behind their body. Chansey's face resembles that of a happiny but it barely grows as the happiny evolves, making it proportionally smaller. They lose the knobs on their forehead but gain two sets of tufts on the sides of their head where their ears would be. The most notable feature of a chansey is the pouch by their arms. This is often used for holding eggs, but they can put unruly happiny or other small pokemon inside in a pinch.

Blissey's primary differences from chansey are on the lowest half of their body. This portion becomes coated in fluffy white fur. Four tufts grow out of the white fur and one apiece develops on the arms. Blissey lose the tufts on their head that they had as chansey and gain large fluffs of long, curly, pink fur in their place.

Blissey have a rather large amount of fat inside of their bodies. However, they also have a surprising amount of muscle. This allows chansey and blissey to run far faster than they appear capable of moving, and happiny are able to lift far heavier objects than most other pokémon of their size.

No stage of the evolutionary line has ears or a nose. They breathe through their mouth and sense vibrations in the air through their pink fur, allowing them to sense movements around them and process sounds.

Blissey appear to have some ability to sense the emotions of those around them and then seek out the source of particularly negative emotions with high accuracy. They do not appear to have any ability to sense pheromones. As such, it is suspected that they may be empathic. Their obsession with easing the physical and mental pain of those around them may simply be a defense mechanism to avoid those unpleasant feelings entering into their own minds. However, blissey (especially those raised by trainers since birth) can be taught to participate in battles and even inflict direct pain on their opponents. Blissey also have no particular aptitude for casting or resisting mental attacks. Human psychics have reported that the line are a little easier to work with than most humanshape pokémon, but not to a degree that suggests inherent psychic powers.

Blissey grow up to heights of 1.7 meters and masses of up to 70 kilograms. They might be immortal aside from stress, prolonged starvation, or particularly severe injuries (see Illness).

Behavior

The evolutionary line is best known for their caring nature. Wild chansey and blissey often tend to sick or wounded pokémon, predators and prey alike. It is suspected that blissey are the reason that Australian predators evolved to be so deadly: if prey wasn't killed immediately, that prey wasn't going to be killed. Chansey primarily cure pokémon by giving them their egg. Even wild blissey appear to have some skill in other forms of healing. This appears to be a learned behavior passed down through generations; a chansey raised in isolation will learn no healing techniques outside of giving their egg.

Wild chansey tend to flee from all but the sickest and most depressed of humans. Even humans they feel compelled to heal will be approached with the utmost caution and ran from and the first sign of danger. They will almost always put their own freedom and welfare above the health of other creatures.

Happiny are not known to lay eggs, but they tend to find and carry around objects that superficially resembles an egg and will fit inside of their pouch. Occasionally they will gift their 'egg' to a very trusted friend or someone they think needs healed; it is believed that happiny do not understand that their 'eggs' do not have any healing properties. The other quirk of happiny that is not present in their adult stages is that they appear to have a low opinion of their appearance. Mirrors anger them and they will attempt to use combs, sticks or anything they can grip to straighten their hair. They are usually unable to succeed. Since they cannot directly touch or see their hair they will eventually forget about the problem.

All stages of the line are highly social pokémon, but they greatly prefer interacting with members of other species. Sometimes two blissey or chansey will live together, especially when one is hurt. Most will only associate with their young daughters. When a happiny evolves, mother and daughter will part and then seldom interact in the future. Blissey and chansey tend to keep large ranges that other members of their species do not enter. While they do not fight over territory, the one whose territory is being intruded upon will usually run to the trespasser and puff her fur up. She will stand still, looking at the trespasser until they leave. On the rare occasion that the intruder ignores her, she will continue to follow her unwelcome guest until they leave her territory.

When a happiny evolves, a new chansey or blissey is introduced, or a member of their species is captured or dies, all blissey and chansey in the area will assemble, work out new territory boundaries, and immediately go back to their homes. It is unknown how blissey can sense other members of the species entering their territory or know when a meeting is called.

Captive chansey working together in a hospital setting usually need to have individual wings they are responsible for and that other members of the species do not enter.

Blissey will usually bond with one group of a single species. They tend to pick the species most closely related to them to bond with. If there are no egg-laying mammals, a placental mammal or a large bird or reptile will be befriended instead. Blissey will help protect the eggs and raise the young of the ward they have attached themselves to, as well as healing the injuries of adults. In exchange, they will sometimes ask for an egg (see Breeding).

Blissey spend a few hours a day foraging on their own if they are not attached to a ward of herbivores. Otherwise, they tend to rely on the ward to bring them food. Blissey's short limbs make it difficult to pluck berries from trees, and their shape makes it impossible to bend down to eat grass. They can go without food or water for up to ninety days, although they will stop producing eggs if they have not eaten in over ten.

Husbandry

Chansey and blissey are the rare pokémon that do more to care for their trainer than their trainer will need to do for them. However, they are not a good team member for a trainer who does not wish to have much interaction with their pokémon. Blissey hate pokéballs and prefer to be with their trainer or the other pokémon on the team almost constantly. Fortunately for stationary trainers (and unfortunately for travelers), they sleep around fifteen hours a day.

Growing happiny, chansey and blissey will need about 10% of their body weight in food a week. Fully grown blissey will need to eat 3-5% of their body weight. Blissey that battle at the highest levels will require 6-8% of their body weight in food. They prefer berries, but they will happily eat most plant material and even honey. Blissey should be handfed due to their very limited use of their limbs. If a blissey is taught a telekinetic move such as psychic they will need much less assistance.

Water can be provided through large bottles with straws or a sipper water bottle fixed at the appropriate height. Blissey should be given about one liter of water a day, although they will very seldom drink all of it. If they do, provide them with more water until they stop.

Any blissey or chansey will adopt an abandoned happiny. If you find yourself caring for an orphaned happiny, you should begin seeking out one of the older stages as well. Otherwise, the happiny will tag along with their trainer constantly and grow stressed if they are separated for a long period of time (including by pokéballs).

Never take the egg (or surrogate egg) of any stage of the evolutionary line. If they wish for you or someone else to have an egg, the pokémon will give it freely. Stealing their egg causes a great deal of stress, which in turn reduces the frequency of egg laying.

Blissey and chansey eggs are incredibly tasty and good for healing tissue, boosting the immune system and reducing pain. This makes the species especially popular among trainers with chronic illnesses. Blissey eggs are also powerful antidepressants with a side effect of greatly increasing the consumer's desire for social interaction. There are presently no other known side effects and blissey trainers are well known for being calm, happy and helpful. The government still closely regulates the trade of blissey eggs. To be safe, you should never own more than one blissey without a specific license to do so. If a blissey gives you an egg you should not redistribute it. This irritates the blissey and is often illegal.

Illness

It is very difficult to kill a blissey. Their body has thick layers of fat around all major organs. Blissey fur also dampens elemental energy. This means that only very, very powerful blunt force attacks and particularly deep and powerful cutting moves can knock a blissey out. Only unrestrained physical attacks from some of the most powerful pokémon in the world can actually kill a blissey. Even then, they will almost always fully recover from attacks such as rhydon tail swings, rampardos head smashes, aegislash cuts, and machamp dynamic punches. To be safe, they should never be left in a fight for more than one of those blows (and smart trainers will put considerable effort into avoiding them altogether).

If a blissey is knocked out in battle they should be immediately withdrawn into a pokéball (ideally a heal ball) and taken to a Pokémon Center as soon as possible. Blissey and chansey are quite good at tending to the wounds of their own species and less than a handful of blissey have ever died when taken into the care of a blissey or chansey within two hours of being injured. Most leagues allow trainers to immediately send a pokémon to a nurse after it is knocked out. This option should be taken whenever available.

Well-fed blissey, chansey and happiny have never been observed catching an illness or having one of their wounds become infected. Adult blissey do not appear to age. Prolonged starvation can kill a blissey and dramatically reduces their ability to heal themselves and others. They will usually succumb to injury or infection around three months after being withdrawn from food.

The juvenile forms, especially happiny, are somewhat less durable. Chansey can be outright killed by the sorts of attacks mentioned above, and even average high-power physical moves can take them out if left untreated. Happiny are almost always fine fighting baby, juvenile or adolescent pokémon. They can even safely take hits from some adult pokémon provided they are not trained for competitive play or exceptionally strong.

The main reason that blissey and chansey die in captivity is stress. A stressed blissey will experience many of the same symptoms as a starving one. They should be given near-constant social interaction, as much sleep as they want, and frequent access to wide-open green spaces. Confinement indoors or on a small ship is stressful. Some blissey have greater tolerances for battle than others, and this should be taken into account when deciding whether or not to use them in a match.

Evolution

Happiny evolve into chansey around their second birthday. The transition is gradual and the formal demarcation is the creation of their first natural egg. In the wild, evolution is also marked by the new chansey leaving her mother. Blissey evolution is also gradual and the exact demarcation line between chansey and blissey is in dispute. The shedding of the last ear tuft, the development of white fur across their entire lower half, and the disappearance of their tail have all been proposed. All three events tend to take place around the same time in any case. Chansey evolve into blissey when they have been free from stress for a long period of time. Very close social bonds, particularly with their trainer, can lead to evolution even with low level stressors such as occasional battles.

Battle

Blissey is the premier special tank in international battling. There are very few elemental attacks that they even seem to feel. Even if they are damaged, they can heal themselves in a variety of ways (wish, rest, eating part of their own egg). They have a variety of utility attacks to use while they are walling opponents such as heal bell, reflect, light screen and stealth rock. Blissey don't have particularly strong elemental attacks, although they can learn a wide variety. Their elemental well is simply too small to be of much use in high tier battles. Blissey's main means of doing damage is through toxic, which steadily wears down most opponents. They can also use counter to deal with melee attackers.

Blissey can be overpowered by many physical attackers, particularly fighting-types. Taunt can also seriously limit blissey's utility. Blissey are also a massive drain on momentum for both the user and the opponent. Those three drawbacks limit their use to defensive or balanced teams.

On the island challenge blissey are still powerful enough to deal with most opponents offensively, especially if they have a way to exploit a weakness. It's still usually for the best to use them to wall a particularly difficult opponent that can neither switch out or harm blissey, such as elementally inclined totem pokémon.

Chansey play a similar role, although they are faster and somewhat less powerful and bulky. Blissey don't really need speed for what they do, so chansey are a somewhat niche pick in competitive battling. Chansey are still quite capable of walling almost all elemental attackers on the island challenge, and they're even capable of dodging or outrunning some projectiles or melee attacks.

Happiny have surprisingly strong tackles. However, they lack a way to reliably heal themselves and they aren't particularly durable. They can be used to counter weak special attackers that can't outrun a them. Alternatively, a well-trained happiny can learn a utility move or two to help out the team while an opponent struggles to take them out of the fight.

Acquisition

All stages of the evolutionary line can be found throughout all four Tapu Islands. Because they are technically invasive they can be captured in all protected areas without additional restrictions.

Federal law prohibits a private individual from owning two chansey or blissey at once. This is probably for the best, as outside of a happiny and either a chansey or a blissey they do not get along when held on the same team.

Happiny can be captured, adopted or purchased with a Class II license. If the trainer also owns a chansey or blissey, only a Class I license is required. Chansey and Blissey can be captured, adopted or purchased with a Class I license.

The main problem with acquiring a member of the line is finding a wild specimen. They are quick to flee from trainers and their fur gives them a pretty good impression of their surroundings. Chansey and blissey are also rather light sleepers. Even if a trainer does find and corner one, her ward will usually come to her aid to avoid losing their resident healer.

In practice, only three types of trainers encounter a wild specimen: the patient ones, the injured ones, and the very depressed ones. In any case, sudden movements should be avoided around a wild blissey. It is best to try and bond with the creature rather than capturing it outright as chansey and blissey caught by force tend to be very difficult to tame.

Capturing a wild happiny is a tricky prospect as they will almost always be protected, either by their mother or by their ward. They are also quick to flee from humans, although they can usually be outpaced by a moderately fit trainer moving at a comfortable walking speed. If it becomes clear that a captured chansey or blissey is caring for a happiny, that pokémon should also be captured. Otherwise, we cannot recommend capturing a wild happiny for ethical and practical reasons.

As mentioned above, all stages of the evolutionary line prefer to be held in heal balls. Luxury, love and quick balls are also acceptable, although they will never like staying in the ball for long periods of time.

Breeding

Contrary to popular belief, blissey are not parthenogenic. There are also no male blissey and there is no equivalent species they mate with. Chansey and blissey eggs are impossible to fertilize and are only used for healing purposes. When a blissey wants to reproduce (and only blissey have the ability to do this) they will approach a female in their adopted clan and request an egg. If the female agrees, the blissey will put the egg inside of her pouch.

Through a poorly understood process she will begin to convert the egg into a fertilized blissey egg. The amount of time it takes for the egg to be converted and hatch depends on how closely related the species is to blissey. Bird and reptile eggs can take years to convert. Eggs from kangaskhan, blissey's closest living relative, can hatch in less than two months.

Blissey breed very rarely in the wild. They tend to only do so when particularly content or when the local chansey population has declined.

In captivity, blissey must be very happy and kept with another female member of an egg-laying species. Even under the best of conditions, it is unlikely that a blissey chooses to reproduce. Given their very long life expectancies, aversion to their own species, and lack of natural predators, there are sound reasons for the species' reluctance to have children.

Subspecies

None known.


	19. Snorlax

**Snorlax (Munchlax)**

Overview

Most invasive species in Alola eventually settle into a niche and the ecosystem rebalances, albeit in a way less favorable to the native species. Resilient as it may be, the Melemele ecosystem has yet to adjust to snorlax. Alolan snorlax are the smallest in the world and they can still eat up to 250 kilograms a day. Their sheer size and appetite have put them towards the top of the local food web since they can bully away every other predator species on Melemele sans salamence.

In 1987, the Hau'oli Zoo acquired a snorlax named Danielle. She became something of a celebrity in the Commonwealth. Petitions surged to allow the importation of munchlax through the less restrictive Category B3 Importation process. An initial review from the United States Department of Agriculture concluded that the Alolan islands simply were not big enough to be able to support a wild snorlax, making the threat of a resident population establishing itself quite minimal.

It would later become evident that the government overlooked two major factors. Alola has the highest plant growth per acre in the world, allowing it to support a far larger food web than would otherwise be possible. The sheer number of large carnivores on the islands attests to this. Second, snorlax that are limited by food will simply reach maturity without reaching their maximum possible size.

The disparity in licensing required to possess the friendly and easy to care for munchlax and the monstrous snorlax has led to many young snorlax being released, particularly in the Hau'oli area. Most of these releases have not resulted in a stable wild population, especially since the DNR has classified snorlax as their "Number One Species of Interest." But even the initiative to remove wild snorlax has left a large number of the bears in government hands with no clear place to send them.

At present, the Melemele Kahuna and the DNR have negotiated an agreement to allow wild snorlax to live freely within Route 1 to see how much damage they will actually do to the environment. The results so far have been discouraging, but the experiment has not been ended due to the difficulty of capturing and rehoming every wild snorlax. In the interim, the importation of additional munchlax has been banned in almost all circumstances. Several of Alola's top trainers have also added a snorlax to their team to take one out of the wild.

One outcome of all of this is that one of the most powerful pokémon in the world can be freely adopted, purchased or captured without seasons or quotas. However, trainers should be advised that snorlax require a Class V license to possess and their owner must be prepared to purchase over one thousand kilograms of food every week.

Physiology

Both stages of the evolutionary line are classified as pure normal-types. Neither ruling is contested.

Munchlax in most of the world are covered in a long, thick coat of blue fur. In Alola they tend to only grow a relatively short and sparse one. The fur on the lower half of their head, back paws and part of their chest is usually cream-colored. Munchlax have five short claws on their forepaws and three long and sharp ones on their back paws. Their ears are quite long and munchlax have rather sharp hearing, although they have a rather limited sense of smell. The relative strength of their hearing and smell slowly shift as they age; elderly snorlax are effectively deaf but can smell blood from kilometers away. Munchlax have two stomachs, each containing very powerful acid. They seldom chew their food and instead rely on their stomachs to digest it.

The vast majority of a snorlax's bulk is in their nearly cylindrical torso. Their limbs are relatively small and stubby, although they still end in sharp claws for traction, gripping food, and self-defense. While most of this mass is fat, snorlax are also quite muscular due to the need to support and move their own weight. Similarly, they have a very durable skeletal structure. The fur on their back is mostly blue, while the fur on their front and limbs is cream-colored.

Wild Alolan snorlax are smaller than their counterparts in mainland Eurasia, growing up to 1.8 meters in height and 380 kilograms in mass. Captive-raised snorlax can reach heights of up to 2.3 meters and masses of up to 550 kilograms. Both wild and captive snorlax tend to live for twenty-five to thirty years.

Behavior

Most bear pokémon are physical titans that chase and kill their prey through any obstacle. Bewear and pangoro are two such examples in Alola. Snorlax can only move up to six kilometers per hour, and even then only in short bursts. But the average wild snorlax will only run once or twice in its life. Instead snorlax are the ultimate scavengers. When another predator takes down prey, snorlax will wake up and steadily move towards the kill. There are very few predators, in Alola or otherwise, that can take down a snorlax and most don't even try to defend the carcass. When the original predator has run away, snorlax scarfs down the remains and immediately goes back to sleep. If there is no food to be had for over a week, snorlax will stir and begin to topple and eat trees until it is satiated or something falls from the tree and dies on impact.

Munchlax occupy an ecological role somewhere between a scavenger and a decomposer. They use their acute sense of smell to find food, ideally somewhat rotten food that faster or stronger scavengers wouldn't bother with, and then they walk tirelessly towards their meal. Then they gulp it down as quickly as possible and stand motionless until their meal is digested. When they wake up they repeat the process. As they grow larger, they begin to behave more like snorlax.

Snorlax are not social, but they also do not seem to strictly enforce territorial boundaries. If there is not enough food in an area for two snorlax, one will eventually just move someplace else. In both the wild and captivity, a sleeping snorlax will seldom object to small creatures (such as human children) playing on them while they slumber. This may be because they don't find such small and agile prey worth the effort to kill.

Outside of Alola, snorlax often hibernate in the winter when most other predators are asleep and fresh kills are less plentiful. Sometimes they retreat into caves or mountain ranges. More often than not, a snorlax (especially one that isn't pregnant) will simply fall asleep in a forest or field and wake up a few months later. In the archipelago where predator hibernation is uncommon snorlax typically remain (relatively) active throughout the year.

Husbandry

Munchlax and snorlax are almost always very tolerant of pokéballs.

Munchlax used to be popular pokémon because they are quite easy to care for and some munchlax, particularly those raised by humans form a very early age, can be quite social. However, unless a trainer goes out of their way to engage one they are more likely than not to simply stand still, half-asleep, between feedings. They produce rather little waste but should still be provided a tray or small pool near their preferred standing spot to catch what they do emit.

In the wild munchlax will often eat as much as they can and then stuff the rest under their fur for later. Unfortunately, their sense of smell and memory are quite weak, meaning that they often forget they put the food their in the first place. If a captive munchlax attempts to put food into their fur they should be allowed to do so. It is extremely unwise to get between a munchlax or snorlax and their food. Instead, the munchlax's fur should be combed and any food removed should be either thrown out or put in storage for later. Munchlax should be bathed frequently to keep them clean and they do not mind water (or almost anything else, for that matter). If they are not fed somewhat regularly, munchlax will begin to throw tantrums.

The main challenge with caring for both munchlax and snorlax is the difficulty in feeding them. Munchlax require, at minimum, 1.5 times their body weight in food every week, but they will happily eat up to 2.5 times their body weight. Munchlax will eat virtually anything. Snorlax prefer relatively fresh meat, which means that very few trainers can afford to care for one.

There is a perception that snorlax are rather docile creatures. This is patently false, particularly for wild-caught snorlax. There is a case to be made that snorlax are the most dangerous bear species on the planet. To start with, snorlax are strong enough to break spines with a half-hearted swing of their arms. A nearby adult human may be deemed large enough and close enough to kill and eat. They do not readily form bonds with humans as they are solitary in the wild. Instead, their trust must be gained over months of associating their trainer with free and easy food. Only then can proper training of any sort begin.

Snorlax should be given two separate paddocks to feed in at first. This will allow their trainer to clean up any waste in one paddock while they eat or sleep in the other. Their enclosure should be well fortified, ideally with two sets of thick metal or concrete walls with a moat in between them. This prevents snorlax from walking off in pursuit of food when they get hungry or smell something in the area.

Despite appearances and reputations, snorlax do need and even want some measure of exercise. They should be forced to walk at least ten meters to access new food. Some snorlax are inquisitive or even playful. Most are not. If a snorlax regularly spends time awake when there is no food present, they should be provided with toys or changes in their environment on a somewhat regular basis. They enjoy rubber balls that are large enough for them to maneuver and thick enough that they will not be immediately pierced.

Perhaps due to parental instincts or not bothering with small, living prey, snorlax are much more tolerant of children than adults and even wild snorlax will seldom kill a human child. There is some debate as to whether or not it is best to bond a wild-caught snorlax to a child before introducing them to their adult trainer. It is far more effective at acclimating the pokémon, but this method has led to at least four fatal errors.

Illness

Much like blissey, snorlax have highly effective digestive and immune systems that render poisons and infections all but irrelevant. They also have thick layers of fat and muscle around their organs. Snorlax heal well even by pokémon standards, although they will need larger, less frequent meals while they heal.

Munchlax are also resistant to infection and poison, but they can be injured by particularly strong attacks. It is recommended that munchlax trainers use normal precautions in matches. (See Battle.)

Evolution

Munchlax grow fairly gradually and steadily into snorlax and there are few major anatomical differences between the two. As they age, munchlax begin taking more interest in progressively fresher kills and have deeper resting periods. They generally cross the formal demarcation line between munchlax and snorlax (a mass of 200 kilograms) around their fifth birthday. Snorlax grow progressively larger as they age, up to the point where they can no longer consume enough to put on weight.

Trainers wishing to evolve their munchlax more quickly should feed them the maximum amount they will eat. Unlike most species, battles are counter-productive in encouraging growth as they lead to the pokémon expending energy.

Battle

In the 1970s, snorlax was the single most dominant pokémon on the competitive battling scene. The 1950s and 1960s brought advancements in transportation and pokémon care that allowed more trainers to use the bulkiest pokémon in the world, such as skarmory, steelix, milotic, avalugg and blissey. Hard stall, also known as slow stall, became the most common playstyle at the top levels of the battling world.

Two events made the rise of snorlax possible. In 1963, Dr. Judith Black published a comprehensive guide to snorlax care. The guide's techniques made it possible for individuals without large, well-fortified estates to raise snorlax. In 1969, the first mass-produced ultra ball was put onto the market, giving far more trainers a tool to actually contain or capture a snorlax with.

Snorlax is not quite as bulky as blissey, but it is still covered in thick layers of fat that make it difficult for all but the most physically powerful of pokémon to harm. They are also very strong and have a surprisingly deep and versatile energy well. Snorlax are also effectively immune to all but the strongest of poisons. The result is a pokémon too tough for the average defensive pokémon to hurt and strong enough to wear down walls. More importantly, they are too heavy to force out via whirlwind, near deaf and immune to roar, and very resistant to most toxic attacks. Snorlax's main disadvantage, low speed, is essentially irrelevant against the slow walls on hard stall teams. The moves curse and rest allow snorlax to slowly become more bulky and powerful and heal off any weak blows that they take in battle.

Quick stall fares little better against snorlax, as snorlax's versatile ranged attacks means that it can take out most fast-but-fragile pokémon in time, and most common quick stall pokémon can't hurt it back.

These days any serious trainer attempting a stall team in a league where snorlax is allowed keeps at least one counter on hand. The best answers to snorlax are very powerful fighting-types, most notably machamp. Otherwise, most very tough and very strong physically attackers can take down a snorlax without taking too much damage. In Alola, rhydon and large dragons are the only pokémon (aside from fighting types) that can reliably take on a snorlax and win.

A trainer using a snorlax on the island challenge can break through almost everything without serious difficulty. But the high license requirement and enormous logistical difficulties make it inadvisable for a young traveling trainer to own one.

Munchlax are somewhat more difficult to battle with. They are somewhat durable, especially for their age and size, and they are also deceptively strong. But most adult pokémon are too durable or too strong for munchlax to take care of. Their energy well is also substantially smaller than an adult snorlax's, and they will not have the experience needed to use the variety of elemental techniques that a snorlax can. By the end of the second island, munchlax will almost certainly be at a severe disadvantage against almost all opponents.

Acquisition

Munchlax can be bought, purchased or captured with a Class II license. They are most frequently found along the outskirts of Hau'oli City, especially in Route 1.

Snorlax require a Class V license to possess or acquire. A wild population exists on Route 1, but it is far easier to adopt one from the Alolan government. Contact the Hau'oli office of the DNR for more information.

Breeding

Snorlax mate in spring. If a female and male snorlax share the same range, the female may approach the male. There is no formal courtship ritual, but sometimes the male does decline the chance to mate. This is usually expressed by the male lying down and falling asleep or not bothering to stand up to acknowledge the female.

Snorlax pregnancy lasts roughly seven months. In the late fall, a pregnant female will begin eating with more frequency and even attacking any animal or pokémon that gets too close to them. It is difficult to tell a pregnant snorlax apart from a normal one (or a female apart from a male, for that matter) so extra caution is advised when traveling through snorlax territory in the fall. Trainers breeding snorlax should avoid any contact whatsoever after the first four months of pregnancy.

Snorlax typically hibernate for a few months after giving birth. The mother seldom wakes up for the duration of the winter while her babies are nursing. Do not approach a snorlax with cubs under any circumstances. In captivity, a pregnant snorlax should be given a cool, enclosed space to use as a cubbing den. After emerging from hibernation, the mother will protect her cubs and share food with them for roughly two months. Then she will stop paying attention to her children, and even scare them off if they try to take food from her.

Subspecies 

Despite popular belief, the Alolan snorlax is not a subspecies. Snorlax born in Alola have the potential to reach their full size if well fed.

The subspecies in Alola is the European snorlax. They are native to the foothills, temperate forests and grasslands of Europe. This subspecies is endangered throughout most of their range and has been extirpated from the British Isles. Most of the remaining bears live in the Wild Area of Galar, the Royal Lands in Kalos, Pyrenees Transnational Park, and a handful of private reserves on the European Plain.

The European snorlax is closely related to the somewhat smaller eastern snorlax, native to eastern China, Korea and Japan. The eastern snorlax has a slightly thinner coat and hibernates more regularly than the European snorlax. They are capable of running somewhat faster than the European snorlax, and they often kill their own prey. Eastern snorlax have the deepest and most versatile energy well of any subspecies. Unfortunately, they are also the most endangered due to their encroachments into the ever-growing human settlements in their range.

The Himalayan snorlax has a very thick coat and hibernates for up to eight months a year. Their claws and paws are larger than the lowland subspecies and their lungs are substantially more powerful. Himalayan snorlax are prone to using their bulk, strength, and energy well to trigger small earthquakes, causing avalanches nearby. They will then dig through the amassed snow to find prey. This behavior earned them fear and veneration; although they are not endangered, they are protected by strict conservation laws. There are only three known Himalayan snorlax in captivity, all within Nepal and Bhutan.

The Siberian snorlax has the highest population and perhaps the strangest behaviors. They are the largest of any subspecies in both weight and bulk. On balance they have never been seen using a non-ice elemental attack and even then their ice beams are weaker than those of the average European or Eastern snorlax. Siberian snorlax hibernate in the winter by digging themselves down into the permafrost. During the summer they spend most of their waking hours scouring the permafrost for buried carcasses to devour. They seldom drink water, preferring to simply eat chunks of ice when they get thirsty. Siberian snorlax are seldom seen on the surface and relatively little is known about them. They fare poorly in captivity due to the difficulty in replicating their natural habitat.


	20. Slowpoke

**Slowpoke (Slowbro | Slowking) | Turbann**

Overview

Slowpoke is well known and loved among the people of Alola. Their tails are a part of many traditional recipes. Slowbro and slowking are taught as an example of symbiosis in almost all elementary science classes. Due to long traditions and the complexity of the subject matter, much of what the average resident of Alola knows about slowpoke, their partners, and their evolutions is wrong.

The biggest misconception is that slowpoke are symbiotic with shellder; slowpoke bond with a separate species called turbann. Unlike the rather flat shellder, turbann are conical and have a spiral ridge on their exterior. On the inside they are vastly different.

Beyond that, slowpoke are not stupid so much as borderline non-sentient and non-sapient. They do not think so much as follow a basic list of survival impulses. In spite of their official typing, psychics have been unable to have any sort of conversation with them or access any memories. There is even an argument to classify slowpoke not as their own species, but as a sort of external organ for turbann. There is some precedent for this, mostly notably with parasect. Slowbro and slowking are also not two separate entities coexisting; the slowpoke and turbann share a fused nervous system and function as one organism.

Fossils of a species closely resembling slowpoke have been found dating back to the late Devonian era. Given the similarity of turbann to orthocones and the bizarre biology of slowpoke, it is possible that they were an early offshoot of the jellies that convergently evolved to resemble amphibians. However, their dependence on an aquatic species limited them to the ocean's edge. It is also unclear why they left the sea in the first place.

Most captive slowpoke in Alola are held for agriculture or research. Slowpoke and slowbro are not the brightest of pets and slowking are, if anything, too smart for the average trainer to adequately care for. The main appeal of slowpoke for young trainers is that they are a very forgiving choice for learning how to care for aquatic pokémon and species with bizarre biology.

Physiology

Slowpoke is officially classified as a water- and psychic- type. This designation is hotly disputed in academic journals. The debate centers on whether true intelligence is a requirement of the psychic typing. The ability of the species to thrive in cooler waters has also led to some calls for a secondary ice-typing. Slowbro and slowking are also designated as water- and psychic- types. Slowbro's designation is controversial for the same reason as slowpoke's. Slowking's typing is generally agreed upon. Turbann is a pure water-type, although more research might lead to it being granted a secondary typing. The official recognition of turbann as a separate species, and not just a variant of shellder, only occurred in the early 2000s. Proper research into the line is lacking.

Slowpoke are pink quadrupeds with cream-colored bellies and muzzles. Their internal physiology is a strange cross between jellies and amphibians. Slowpoke have a handful of cartilaginous bones as well as some hair-like threads that bind multiple mucus layers together into a coherent organism. There are complex mucus structures in their bodies that perform the basic functions of organs. Rather than proper muscles, they move through a system of hydraulic pumps. They also do not have anything resembling a brain; their nerves form several small clusters throughout their bodies, each of which appears to govern a single function. It is unclear if slowpoke are physiologically capable of higher thought.

Turbann are conical invertebrates. They have hard, gray shells that have a very similar composition to those of cloyster. The spherical mouth of their shell is lined with needle-like teeth, and they have two eye spots on the rim of their shell. On the inside they possess a complex network of passageways, pumps, filters, and nerves that guide the organism.

When a turbann latches onto a slowpoke, a series of changes begin in both organisms. The most obvious external sign is that the slowpoke roughly doubles in size. In slowbro, most of the internal changes occur in the turbann. The areas formerly devoted to propulsion and feeding become filled with neural tissue and reproductive organs. This increases the intelligence of the whole organism and allows the turbann to eventually reproduce (see Breeding). Slowking experience neural growth in not just the turbann, but throughout the slowking's head. The turbann also does not develop reproductive organs. Both slowbro and slowking gain stronger hydraulic pumps to move their larger body around.

Slowpoke grow to lengths of 1.2 meters and masses of 35 kilograms. Turbann grow to lengths of 0.6 meters and masses of 25 kilograms. Slowbro and slowking both grow to heights of roughly 2 meters and masses of 80 kilograms. Turbann can live up to five years in the wild and three in captivity. Slowbro and slowking can live up to twenty-five years in both the wild and captivity. Slowpoke may be functionally immortal unless it evolves.

Behavior 

Slowpoke prefer living in moist, cool, coastal habitats. They are capable of living in warmer waters or drier climates, but they must spend more time in the water in these areas. Slowpoke will stand motionless on the waters edge for days on end, sometimes inserting their tail into the water. The same compounds that give slowpoke tails their distinct flavor also lure in fish and small pokémon, allowing the slowpoke to whip them onto land and devour them once they die. Slowpoke can go weeks between feedings. While they are somewhat capable swimmers, they only enter the water when they need to rehydrate.

Turbann are pelagic filter feeders that live right above the thermocline. They swim by pushing water through their bodies. This water is filtered as it moves through the pokémon, and all trapped plankton are digested. Once a turban reaches its full size it will begin following the chemicals released by fishing slowpoke. They can swim upwards of one thousand kilometers to evolve.

Despite the boost in intelligence, slowbro are only slightly more active than slowpoke. They are benthic feeders who use their psychic abilities to locate prey beneath the substrate. Then use their claws, water attacks and telepathy to make the kill. Slowbro eat multiple times most days. When they are not hunting, slowbro typically beach themselves on land and sleep. Outside of mating, slowbro are not particularly social. Sometimes several will live in the same area but they will seldom acknowledge each other.

The average slowking is far more intelligent than the average human. This leads to slowking leading a radically different lifestyle than slowbro. To start, most slowking are vegetarian. They subsist mostly on fruit and seaweeds. When these are scarce near the waterline, they may resort to scavenging or hunting non-pokémon fish or jellies. They are extremely empathic and consistently express a reluctance to harm other sapient creatures. Like most psychics, slowking also spend a considerable amount of time asleep. In the wild, they sleep for roughly twelve hours a day. When they are not sleeping or foraging, slowking spend much of their time socializing or exploring.

Slowking are incredibly curious creatures that seek to understand everything and everyone they encounter. Finding slowbro too dull to bother with, they mostly interact with either other slowking or highly intelligent creatures. This often drives them to seek out a human trainer to teach them about human society, philosophy, and technology.

Slowpoke will sometimes instinctively defend themselves with telepathic bursts. They have very few natural predators because, aside from their tail, their body is difficult to digest and not particularly nutritious. Slowbro and slowking have even fewer predators due to their increased power, intelligence and size. It is not known if turbann have natural predators. It is not thought that anything would bother penetrating their hard shell for the relatively small amount of soft tissue inside of it.

Husbandry

Turbann have a rather high resource threshold of care. They need large quantities of natural seawater to filter and open spaces to swim through and die quickly on land. Turbann also do not form attachments to humans and when placed in the ocean they will attempt to swim away. Because of these limitations, their care is best left to aquariums and large laboratories. The Hau'oli Aquarium has them on display in their Open Oceans exhibit.

Slowpoke also do not form attachments to humans, but they are relatively easy to care for and keep track of. Slowpoke and slowbro show no aversion to pokéballs. A slowpoke should be let out of their pokéball near a large body of water every few days. If the slowpoke walks over to it and sticks their tail in, it is feeding time. Slowpoke eat most kinds of seafood and have also been known to eat insect mixes and raw poultry.

The main concern for slowpoke and slowbro (and a big concern for slowking) is hydration. Because their bodies are mostly liquid and their movement is powered by hydraulic pumps, they need to be given time to soak in water every three days at most. They prefer salt water between three and ten degrees Celsius. In a pinch, they can tolerate fresh water and water up to twenty degrees Celsius.

Slowbro require daily feedings. Their diet is about the same as a slowpoke's, although individual slowbro have different preferences. Slowbro eat until full and then stop eating. While they can and do become attached with their trainers, slowbro are not at all cuddly and do not like being touched. Unlike true amphibians, slowpoke and its evolutions will not be injured by skin contact. They simply find it uncomfortable. Slowbro will also avoid engaging in any activity at all, including socialization to training. Getting a slowbro to obey even simple and costless commands is an exercise in patience.

Slowking should be provided with seaweed (or lettuce in a pinch) and fruit until they are no longer hungry. Most slowking have a particular fondness for watermelons. They will need to sleep roughly twelve hours a day and they are content to do so within their pokéball. Slowking generally prefer dive balls. Slowbro have not demonstrated a preference in pokéball type.

When they are not sleeping or eating, slowking need to be outside of their pokéball exploring or conversing. They are as inquisitive as a toddler and have the intellect of a Ph.D. student. Even the smartest of trainers will struggle to keep a slowking entertained on their own. Successful slowking trainers generally teach their pokémon to read and telekinetically lift books. They will then rely upon a library, television, or computer to keep the slowking occupied. Some universities have experimented with having slowking oversee dormitory floors so they can learn from many different people and attend classes themselves as payment.

As implied above, most slowking quickly figure out telepathic and verbal human speech. It is not uncommon for a slowking to learn multiple languages. This gives even non-psychic trainers a pokémon they can speak with. Many trainers find that this elevates the pokémon from pet to family in their eyes. It can be quite difficult for trainers to adjust to having a new sapient being they are required to care for and that wants to take up as much of their time as possible. If your slowpoke evolves into a slowking (see Evolution) and you are not prepared to make the transition, it is best to give up the pokémon before it becomes attached.

All stages of the slowpoke line produce exclusively liquid waste. Upon being sent out of their pokéball, slowpoke and slowbro should be placed over a small pool or tub, or at least an area that can be urinated on. Slowking are quite capable of housebreaking themselves.

Of course, the main reason people train the line in Alola is for slowpoke tails. Wild slowpoke require their tails to hunt and become distressed when they lose their tail unexpectedly. They shed and regrow their tails naturally on a roughly three-month cycle. Captive slowpoke can have their tails harvested as soon as they reach full size as they do not require their tails to find food. Tails regenerate in full over the course of a month. A tail-less slowpoke should regularly be offered food, as the normal means of gauging their hunger is inapplicable.

Illness

The most common problems for turbann are starvation and shell thinning. Starvation occurs when there is an inadequate or imbalanced amount of food in their environment. Pumping in fresh coastal seawater to their tank generally solves this problem. There is a corollary problem where too much particulate matter in the environment can clog up a turbann's filter system. Visibly murky or silty water should be avoided. Shell thinning is caused by inadequate calcium carbonate concentrations in their tank. If a turbann's shell appears brittle or cracks, then more calcium needs to be introduced as soon as possible. To prevent these injuries, supplemental calcium sources should always be present in the tank.

Slowpoke are remarkable regenerators. Given enough food, water and time they can regenerate from anything except near-complete shredding or dissolution. The most common problems in captivity occur when they are not given the food, water or time they need to heal.

If a slowpoke's skin ever stops being bright pink and slimy, they should immediately be offered a pool and allowed to stay outside of their pokéball until they completely remove themselves from the water. This also applies for the evolutions of slowpoke. When wounded slowpoke should be given an increased supply of food and not be put into battle again until they have fully recovered.

In the event of a slowbro's devolution they should immediately be placed into professional veterinarian care.

Evolution

When a turbann bites a slowpoke, a variety of physiological changes occur. Many of these are detailed in the Physiology section of this article. The union of a turbann and slowbro appears to be the only way for slowpoke to evolve. In the wild, the vast majority of turbann choose to latch onto a slowpoke's tail rather than their head. How a turbann decides where to attach themselves is unclear. The leading theory at present is that turbann gauge the chemical markers slowpoke put into the water to evaluate the health of the slowpoke slumber and the number of slowbro and slowking. If the slumber is threatened or declining or there are only one or two slowking, the turbann is incentivized to evolve a slowpoke to slowking in order to solve the slumber's problems and increase its numbers (see Breeding).

Trainers who wish to use a slowbro or slowking are recommended to acquire one that has already evolved. Evolving a slowpoke without external aid requires letting a slowpoke rehydrate and catch its fish naturally while under constant supervision (they will not return to their trainers on their own) until they are eventually bitten by a turbann. Alternatively, trainers can pay the Hau'oli Aquarium for the chance to put their slowpoke in the same tank as turbann. In both cases it is impossible to determine what a slowpoke evolves into.

Slowbro has a mega evolution. It takes the form of a temporary flash evolution. Excess energy is channeled into the turbann, allowing it to grow until it covers almost the entire slowpoke. It is believed that this might cause the slowpoke some distress, if not actual pain. This runs against the theory that turbann and slowpoke become one cohesive organism rather than a partnership of two separate creatures. Or, perhaps, the slowpoke's face is expressing the discomfort of the collective being itself. In any case, mega evolution of slowbro is currently banned in most competitive matches in Alola. Mega evolving slowbro requires a Class V license.

Slowbro are notable for being one of the few pokémon to experience devolution. When a turbann detaches itself from slowbro, either because of external trauma or the normal reproductive cycle (see Breeding), the slowpoke has a chance to survive. Upon detachment, the slowpoke loses access to much of it central nervous system. They are also usually far out to sea and experiencing massive blood loss. However, sometimes the slowpoke will manage to guide itself to shore without being devoured by predators. At this point they will usually haul themselves into the shallows and rest. Over the next few weeks, wounds will close and the nervous system will return to that of a slowpoke. Most disturbingly, large chunks of flesh are expelled as the slowpoke returns to the size it was before evolution. When everything is completed, the rejuvenated slowpoke will awaken and resume hunting as if nothing had happened at all.

Battle

Turbann has never been used on the competitive battling scene. One journal article proposed that they might have a niche in underwater battles. Their relative agility and the durability of their shells could allow turbann to stall out the clock with perish song or poisoning in play. However, even that article conceded that cloyster would probably be more useful due to the species' superior intelligence and offensive power. Pyukumuku is also probably better as a defensive utility pokémon in underwater battles. In any case, almost all captive turbann are owned by aquariums and thus are highly unlikely to see battle. On the rare occasions where a sharpedo or other predator has threatened a turbann in their tank, they did not fight so much as unleash a powerful jet of water to get to the other side of the tank and stun the predator

The only known method of training a slowpoke to respond to commands involved extensive cognitive rewiring from a high-level psychic. Ignoring the ethical and legal implications of this, it is simply impossible for the vast majority of trainers to do. The only real way to use a slowpoke in battle is to send it out and hope that the right reflexes kick in when the slowpoke gets attacked. Typically, slowpoke will defend itself with low-powered water bursts and telepathic attacks. These usually only manage to annoy adult pokémon, but some juvenile or frail pokémon can be knocked out.

Slowking is gifted with a reasonably deep and versatile energy well and a naturally high intelligence. A captive slowking can learn to use up to eight elemental attacks. Slowking can also learn a variety of utility moves such as light screen, scald, future sight, yawn and trick room. When combined with the line's naturally fast healing slowking is a decent special wall and utility pokémon that can still pack a punch if needed. One of the Top 100 Trainers, Gabriel Perez, uses one on their main team.

Slowbro has a slightly different role in competitive battling. They cannot be taught the sheer number of moves that a slowking can learn. Instead, slowbro trainers abuse a quirk of their physiology: they seem unable to feel any pain at all. Their mucus-like flesh also practically knits itself back together in the water or while stored in a dive ball. These attributes allow slowbro to take a lot of damage, both at once and throughout a match. They can also be taught a utility move or two, reasonably powerful water and psychic attacks, and perhaps one elemental move for coverage. This is all they really need to check some of the premier water, rock and fighting type pokémon in the metagame and then continue to check them throughout the entire match.

Still, slowbro faces competition from other bulky water-types that are a bit easier to train and can learn a wider variety of moves. Milotic is also a durable, fast healer. In addition, milotic learns more utility moves, hits harder and can last longer against a single opponent. They are generally better companions. The advantages slowbro has over milotic on professional circuits are the ease of acquisition, telepathic resistance, endurance throughout a battle and their ability to take stronger single hits without fainting from pain.

On circuits where mega evolution is allowed, slowbro is viewed as one of the metagame's top pokémon. In addition to the advantages listed above, almost nothing can pierce a mega slowbro's shell. They can also be trained to move quickly enough that it's hard to line up a reliable strike on the (still pain immune and fast-healing) head.

For trainers on the island quest, slowking plays much the same as it does on the competitive scene. They should be taught new attacks regularly and given new puzzles and games to encourage them to master old attacks or use different combinations of them. This allows them to play a more versatile, technical game than any opponent a trainer is likely to face on the island challenge, with the possible exceptions of the fourth kahuna, the elite four, and the champion. Slowking still faces competition from primarina for a slot as the intelligent, reasonably durable water-type and translator on a team.

Slowbro generally fares better on island challenges than it does on the U.S. competitive scene. Even relatively untrained slowbro are still durable enough to tank any neutral attacks they are likely to encounter before the elite four. And while milotic and toxapex are better at filling the bulky water role, the rarity of feebas and diet of toxapex mean that most trainers are better off just getting a slowbro.

Acquisition

Turbann require a Class IV license to purchase, adopt or capture. Their capture is prohibited within fifty nautical miles of the coast. This ban, combined with their habit of staying about ten meters below the surface makes them difficult to find. Again, turbann is not recommended for traveling trainers.

Slowpoke require a Class I license to capture, adopt or purchase. They are typically found congregated along Kala'e Bay or the runoff streams of Mt. Lanakila where the waters are cooler than in the rest of Alola.

Slowbro and slowking require a Class II and III license to possess, respectively. Unlike most other species, trainers who captured their pre-evolution with a lower license are not automatically allowed to keep the pokémon when it evolves. This is because newly evolved slowbro and slowking almost never show any loyalty to the trainer who cared for them as a slowpoke. Both are found in the same locations as slowpoke. Trainers taking the island challenge are limited to capturing one slowbro or slowking total. They are only allowed to do so if they have defeated a kahuna within the past year. All other trainers are prohibited from capturing a slowbro or slowking.

Breeding

Slowbro produce turbann and slowking produce slowpoke. After an apparently random period of time, a female slowbro will begin to produce more egg cells inside of her shell. She will then seek out a male to mate with. After the eggs are fertilized, the slowbro will swim up to fifty kilometers off the continental shelf, often over the course of several days. Then the turbann will detach from the slowpoke and release roughly three million eggs into the water. These eggs will drift in the current for six weeks before hatching into zooplankton. They will then develop into an adult turbann over the next year. The turbann mother will perish, and usually the slowpoke will also die due to being stranded far from shore with low food reserves and a profusely bleeding wound.

Slowking have much more conventional reproduction. When food is abundant and threats are scarce, slowking will seek each other out and mate. Unlike true amphibians, slowking are internally fertilized and give birth to two to three live young after a four month pregnancy. Both parents help in protecting the slowpoke until they are roughly three months old, at which point the parents pay no more attention to them than they do to the rest of the slumber. Slowking do not die after reproducing and can do so many times over the course of their lifespan.

Slowbro should not be bred in captivity due to the high risk of death and abundance of wild turbann and slowpoke. Slowking are not shy about reproduction and will express their needs and desires freely to a trainer they trust. Due to their desire to coparent, one trainer will need to either own two slowking or borrow one for a few months in order to facilitate breeding. Pregnant slowking will require slightly elevated amounts of food and a damp, cool and quiet place to retreat to. They should not be used in battle. Male slowking grow more aggressive and territorial after mating and have even been known to lash out at their trainers if they perceive them as a threat to the female. Caution is advised around the males during pregnancy and child-rearing.

Subspecies

The fossil record and drawings found in Phoenician settlements suggest that slowpoke lived in the North Atlantic until roughly 3,000 years ago. It is unclear why the Atlantic slowpoke died out rather abruptly throughout its entire range. The only living subspecies is the Pacific slowpoke, which lives around the North Pacific and down much of the South American coast.

Turbann live throughout the Pacific Ocean and have no recognized subspecies.


	21. Pelipper

**Pelipper (Wingull)**

Overview

A handful of species have established nearly global ranges. For the most part these are small and hardy pokémon. Few have the power or majesty to attract worship. Yet pelipper plays a central role in several world mythologies and have earned the fear and respect of sailors the world over.

Pelipper are widespread and worshipped because of their almost unique ability to manipulate wind and rain. In the wild, they congregate in groups of hundreds or thousands and beat their wings and use water attacks in coordination. This can change wind currents and bring rain. Some captive pelipper have been taught to do something similar on their own, albeit on a much smaller scale.

Alolan mythology holds that pelipper came to Alola alongside humans. Indeed, there is some evidence that Polynesian cultures may have tamed pelipper as hunting companions in much the same way canine and feline pokémon were tamed and used elsewhere.

The parallels to dogs and cats are easy to see. Pelipper are social and relatively intelligent. Wild pelipper do not have clear hierarchies, but their communal nature makes them adapt well to captivity. They eat many of the same fish species as humans and can learn to hunt in tandem. However, they have never been properly domesticated anywhere in the world. While pelipper can respect and use humans they are proud and unruly and even the most docile refuse to submit completely to anyone, bird or human.

The attributes listed above make them a decent choice pokémon for beginning trainers. They also make for an excellent gateway to raising and battling with flying-types, although it should be noted that pelipper generally do not get along with other species of birds.

Physiology

Wingull have rather simple builds. They have long, flat, and straight wings. These are useful for gliding and catching thermal updrafts. Wingull beaks tend to be about as long as their core body. They have short trains of several long, blue feathers.

The core body of a wingull is rather small and contains a short digestive tract, heart, and air cavity. This cavity functions as both lungs and a swim bladder. Curiously, wingull do not need to breathe. Instead they can intake air from small slits beside their beak and release it through similar slits on the posterior. They can only do this while flying. While grounded or swimming, they must breathe through their beak. Due to the small size of their air cavity wingull cannot hold their breath for long. As such wingull seen out of flight will usually be gaping with their beak wide open.

The vast majority of a pelipper's body is made up of their bill and supporting organs. The Alolan pelipper's bill is pink and looks like a large scoop, with the upper half of the bill forming a nearly flat lid. Pelipper do not have a proper stomach. Instead, they pump digestive acids into the bill itself and digest it there. Because of this pelipper have to land shortly after filling their bill with food in order to safely digest it without the risk of acid sloshing outside of their very durable bill. A pelipper with a full beak is also quite heavy, making it difficult to fly even with aerokinesis. Pelipper's lungs are much stronger than wingull and allow them to breathe even if their mouth is closed for several hours. Their nostrils are located beneath their eyes.

Pelipper have waterproof pale blue feathers. They have short, thin legs and webbed feet. Unlike most other subspecies, the Alolan pelipper has a trail of feathers that it uses to sense the wind. Alolan pelipper also have a much longer wingspan and wing surface area than any other subspecies. As the largest and heaviest subspecies, they need large wings to catch air currents and stay aloft. Between these changes, the Alolan pelipper looks more like a conventional bird of prey than other subspecies do. There is a theory, preliminarily supported by DNA tests, that the pelipper in Alola may have had widespread interbreeding with toucannon and mantine in the past. At present wild pelipper infrequently leave their flock to mate with another species of bird pokémon. The resulting offspring are sometimes reproductively viable and are often accepted into a pelipper flock if they wish to join.

Pelipper can have a wingspan of up to 1.8 meters and a mass of 30 kilograms. They usually live for eight to twelve years in the wild and up to twenty in captivity.

Behavior

Individual pelipper have moderately powerful aerokinesis and water elemental abilities. In large groups they can combine their gusts to form large, powerful storms that have minimal impact on individual pelipper. It is unclear exactly how they manage this coordination as they do not appear to possess a hivemind and, while intelligent, there are far smarter birds that cannot coordinate as well as pelipper can.

Pelipper's storms are their primary means of hunting. Their preferred food are wishiwashi. Turbulent waters disrupt wishiwashi's ability to school, making it hard for them to defend against pelipper scooping them up. Other surface-dwelling fish such as finneon and luvdisc are also often unable to navigate well during pelipper storms.

The Alolan pelipper is more audacious in confronting other birds than any other tropical subspecies. They will often swarm the rookeries where migrating birds congregate. Roughly two-thirds of the flock will keep up a powerful storm to ground or disorient the adult birds. The rest will swoop in and try to make off with eggs or young birds. Braviary are generally able to power through the winds and can easily take down a pelipper. Mandibuzz have taken to roosting further inland or placing their nest inside of a crevice or other area difficult for pelipper to reach. Hawlucha and delibird have fewer adaptations, forcing them to live within the same range as braviary or dragons to stand a chance.

Pelipper have a few predators themselves. Talonflame are skilled fliers that mind water far less than other fire-types. They are known to kill pelipper for food and sport. Vikavolt show a particular resentment towards pelipper and hodad will sometimes cull pelipper colonies that get too brash. Pelipper are salamence's favorite prey; there is very little even a flock of pelipper can do against a large airborne dragon.

The Alolan pelipper is the only subspecies that does not rest in cliff faces or trees. Instead a flock descends upon a beach and makes itself at home. On most days scores of pelipper can be seen wandering around Hau'oli Beach. They sometimes wander into the city to explore. If provoked pelipper rear up and start flapping their wings while honking as loud as they can. This summons more pelipper who engage in the same behavior. Grounded pelipper are not particularly strong but this scares off most predators that attempt to attack their nesting grounds.

If intimidation does not scare predators away some pelipper will spew the acidic, partially digested content of their bills at the attacker. Because this costs them a meal it is a last resort.

Husbandry

It is best to obtain a pelipper as either an egg or a wingull. They will be ornery regardless, but the younger a pelipper is exposed to humans the less aggressive it will be. Generally, pelipper are tolerant of their own trainer after a few days, weeks or months of adjustment. They will also usually harass any other human they come across using the method detailed in the Behavior section.

Pelipper are perfectly tolerant of pokéballs during the night and the bulk of the day. They prefer to be fed in the morning and be given a few hours to sit still and digest food. When necessary, pelipper feedings can be pushed back until the afternoon or evening to allow for a morning battle. However, they will be somewhat aggressive until fed. Wingull are more tolerant of their pokéball than pelipper and are far more tolerant of varying feeding schedules.

Wingull and pelipper should be fed diets consisting largely of fish, poultry and eggs. Some wingull enjoy berries, but the birds cannot digest them well enough to be primarily herbivorous. Pelipper tend not to enjoy anything but meat and eggs. They should be fed roughly half the volume of their bill every day and the full volume after strenuous battles or training.

Once a pelipper has adapted to having a trainer they will typically demand nearly all of their trainer's time when they are outside of their pokéball. They do not tend to play with other pokémon aside from other wingull or pelipper. As such many pelipper trainers find it easier to keep a mated pair than an individual.

Pelipper are clever. However, their lack of a functional beak or talons means that most bird enrichment items will not work for them. Some trainers have reported that pelipper will push around and harass a beach ball for hours at a time treating it like a living organism intruding upon their territory. In general visually interesting objects or items a pelipper can shove away make for the best toys.

Wingull are even more curious and playful than pelipper. They also have a much more useful beak. Puzzle items that require manipulation to obtain treats are always popular with the gulls. Small eggs or seeds make for good rewards. Wingull can also be target-trained, biting at items in exchange for food. More than anything, wingull enjoy being allowed to fly around an area and explore it. However there are many predators willing to attack a solitary wingull. If a wingull is allowed to explore they must be supervised (ideally by an electric- or ice-type that can scare other birds away).

Wingull and pelipper do not have an anus. Instead, they dispose of waste by regurgitating it. Wingull can be housebroken and taught to do so outside or in a specific location. If they did not learn as a wingull, pelipper will refuse to learn on principle. Because their digestive processes are not particularly efficient, a pelipper can produce a lot of waste. Trainers of non-housebroken pelipper should be prepared to have to clean it up at inconvenient times and in inconvenient places.

Illness

Because their beak is not good for grooming, pelipper struggle to keep parasites at bay. In the wild the fierce storms pelipper fly in clear away lice and pelipper that have not learned how to create a storm on their own do not have this advantage. It is important for trainers to brush their pelipper once every two to four days. Unfortunately, pelipper have a strong dislike for having their feathers touched even by trusted humans. But an unbrushed pelipper will quickly develop disease or feather problems that make it harder for them to swim or fly. While these can be medically treated, it is ultimately easier to just regularly groom your pelipper, however unpleasant it may be for everyone involved.

Evolution

Pelipper has a combination of normal growth and flash evolution. Wingull steadily increase in size after birth. After they gain enough experience with flight, aerokinesis and their environment, they undergo flash evolution into a pelipper of roughly the same mass. They then steadily grow until they reach their final size.

In captivity, wingull evolution can be sped up by providing them with plenty of toys and chances to explore. Learning new moves and battling also accelerate the process. Conversely, an everstone can keep a wingull from evolving. There is some evidence that wingull learn skills more readily than pelipper and they are generally easier to keep in line. Some trainers have kept their wingull from evolving for the full course of their life with no apparent side effects. However, pelipper are far better battlers. Trainers on an island challenge should evolve their wingull at the first opportunity.

Battle

Pelipper are far less powerful on their own than in a flock. The Alolan pelipper's size makes it better at fighting alone than most subspecies but it will still take extensive training to teach one to summon and control storms. This is the primary advantage of capturing a wild pelipper; they will have been taught by other pelipper since birth how to master the winds. Trainers willing to exchange more hardships in husbandry for a simpler training process should keep this in mind.

There are many other pokémon that can alter the weather on small temporal and spatial scales. Some, such as castform and politoed, are even better than pelipper at summoning rain. But pelipper is the only pokémon in Alola that can instinctively whip up a full storm, gale-force winds and all. Other birds can be taught to summon rain and provide wind on their own, but their rain tends to take longer to summon and then falters shortly after they leave the field. When all of this is taken together, pelipper is easily the best cornerstone for rain teams on the competitive circuit.

Pelipper functions as an arena-controlling zoner in battle. They take to the skies and spend most of their time and effort controlling their storm. When they must attack directly they fire off water-attacks or manipulate gusts of wind into striking their opponent. A skilled pelipper trainer will only have their pokémon land to use roost. Most pelipper on the competitive battling scene carry toxic and scald to wear down opponents over time.

Pelipper still have two glaring weaknesses. Electric-types can usually target and knock them out easily and pelipper have few options for defending against thunderbolts. They are also not fast movers on the ground and must be in the air to control their storm. Once the first thunderbolt knocks them down to earth, they can very seldom get back up before they are knocked out entirely. The second weakness is to more imposing birds or dragons. As in the wild braviary, talonflame and salamence can usually fly through a pelipper's storm and land a quick knockout in close-quarters combat.

In addition to their role as a rain-setter pelipper are good at taking down teams that only have a rock or ice type as their bird check. However the recent rise of vikavolt has been horrible for pelipper and for rain teams as a whole.

It is extremely unlikely that a trainer on the island challenge can teach a pelipper to summon a full storm before they complete all of the trials. Pelipper are neither bulky nor powerful enough to hold their own after the second island. They still make for excellent pets after the challenge ends but trainers should manage their expectations during the actual challenge itself.

Absent a full storm pelipper function as relatively bulky but weak birds. They should try to stay in the air as much as possible and rely on wind and water attacks to take down opponents from a distance. If they do get knocked down pelipper have few good options up close. Their main defense mechanism in the wild, regurgitation, requires feeding the pelipper a large meal before battle. This keeps them from flying and also only works once. As such it is not a particularly good strategy. Toxic and scald are the best moves for the amateur's pelipper. Whirlwind is an option for warding off losing matchups. Despite these tricks, when pelipper find themselves at a disadvantage they often lose spectacularly and quickly. It is unlikely they have a chance to land a whirlwind.

Wingull play very differently from pelipper. Generally they will need to get up close and strike with their beak. Wingull also have rather weak wings and need assistance to get into the air. The solution to this is that a trainer should toss their wingull at the start of the match. Then all effort should be put into making sure the wingull stays airborne. A grounded wingull can still often hold their own against weaker opponents through intimidation displays and pecks but they are much less useful than a wingull able to circle their opponent and wait for the opportune moment to strike.

Acquisition

Wingull and pelipper are found on practically every beach in Alola, except for areas where braviary are actively breeding. They also avoid the black sand beaches on Ula'Ula. Wingull require a Class I license to adopt or purchase and a Class II license to capture. Pelipper require a Class III license to capture, adopt or purchase. Trainers should be warned that approaching a pelipper flock with the intent of capturing a wingull or pelipper will likely lead to a confrontation with the entire flock. It is best to pick on isolated pelipper off exploring.

Wingull that have grown accustomed to captivity generally fare poorly in the wild. Some pelipper owners eventually decide cleaning up after their pet is more trouble than it's worth. As such there are usually wingull and pelipper in the major pokémon shelters. These birds will also have already acclimated to people and been housebroken (if possible). The easiest way to obtain a wingull or pelipper is to adopt one.

Alternatively, the Seafolk sell pelipper that are trained to manipulate winds on their own. They typically charge between $5,000 and $10,000 for one. This prices out most trainers on an island challenge, but established trainers who want to explore rain teams may be interested.

Breeding

Pelipper mate for life. Generally a male interested in a female will go out and hunt well before dawn, before the flock wakes and conducts their own hunt. The male will fill up their bill with fish but not begin digesting it. They will then swim to shore (it is usually too difficult to fly solo with a full beak). The male will find their prospective mate and present them with the catch. If the female accepts it, they will begin to stay close to each other at all times, seldom getting more than 15 meters apart.

Pelipper breed at the height of rainy season, typically in January or February. Most migratory birds are absent at this time. The female lays a single egg each season. The parents will spend most of their time huddled around the egg. If small predators approach one parent will leave to harass them away. If a large predator is spotted near the flock half of the birds will take to the air and attempt to force them away. The other half will guard the eggs. Similarly, half of the flock will leave each morning to hunt. They will then share part of their catch with the partner watching the egg. Males and females alternate hunting and defense duties.

It is impossible to identify the sex of a pelipper or wingull without very close examination of their genitals. This is best done by a veterinarian while the bird is under anesthesia. The procedure is viewed as elective and nurses at public centers will charge for it. Unless a trainer wishes to breed their pelipper it is easiest to just randomly assign a gender. The pelipper will not understand or mind.

Trainers who do wish to breed their pelipper are encouraged to get their pokémon tested. Then they should adopt or purchase a pelipper of the opposite sex. The male should be given the chance to hunt on their own until they court the female. Females are pregnant for roughly three weeks before laying their egg, which will take another month to hatch. Once the egg has been laid neither member of the pair should be withdrawn into their pokéball or disturbed outside of feedings.

Pelipper are devoted parents to their wingull for the first two months. The parents will behave very aggressively towards anyone except for their trainer during this time and one should always be outside of their pokéball with the child. Around the two month mark the parents will begin losing interest and the wingull will become essentially independent. Normal husbandry routines may be resumed at this time.

Subspecies

Most of the eight subspecies of pelipper are rather similar to the Alolan pelipper. They have slight differences in build, color and behaviors to adapt to their environments, prey and predators. Only one is particularly notable.

The blessed, or African, pelipper is the most migratory subspecies. They seldom settle down for long, preferring to constantly travel across the continent bringing heavy rains. The blessed pelipper flies at night and collects moisture. Their wingbeats and winds can sound like drums and whispers, respectively. One of the oldest pelipper in the flock stays above the clouds, occasionally dipping down to communicate with the others. It is believed that this elder is navigating by starlight. Just before dawn, the flock abruptly stops and circles in place. They unleash all collected moisture in a single, powerful rain. Then individual members of the flock begin to swoop down and pick on anything scurrying for shelter. They also scavenge any fire types killed by the torrent.

The blessed pelipper rests during the day. They are the most curious and intelligent subspecies and some individuals will wander to nearby settlements to exchange songs. The blessed pelipper is very skilled at manipulating sound using their throat pouches and they have a very good individual and collective memory. Anthropologists have taken to eavesdropping on blessed pelipper flocks to learn long-forgotten words and ancient melodies.

Once a year, all of the blessed pelipper fly to Mt. Kilimanjaro. They intermingle and breed there. Members are exchanged between flocks and, at the end of breeding season, they all rise above the Serengeti in one massive swarm of birds before dispersing again. One female remains on the mountain and waits there for the rest to return.


	22. Alakazam

Alakazam (Abra, Kadabra)

[u]Overview[/u]

Pokémon are generally considered to be separate from other lifeforms based on their ability to manipulate elements. In essence, there is one set of physics and biology that binds humans and other animals and a whole separate set that governs pokémon.

As with everything in nature that clean binary gets messier the more it's examined. Some pokémon are so similar to baseline plants or animals that only genetic testing has marked them as pokémon. And some humans can do things that violate simple biological explanation. The most notable subgroup of these superpowered humans are the psychics. Human psychics are split into nearly a dozen subclasses and scientific research as to how and why psychic powers work is still a new field. But the psychics themselves are not new. In ancient times, they were viewed as priests of the gods and often played outsized roles in court politics. There is some evidence that they played a major role in the early domestication and taming of pokémon.

They also played a key role in the spread of alakazam.

Alakazam possess an incredible intellect. They are also some of the most powerful telepaths and telekinetics in the world. Yet alakazam's greatests gifts hold them back in the wild. From their final evolution on alakzam scan the minds of everyone around them. They reflexively store most of this information and almost never forget any of it. But the more information an alakazam has downloaded, the less quickly they can process all of it. Alakazam are also deeply afraid of making poor decisions and looking foolish which compels them to check their entire memory for relevant information before acting. As such an elderly alakazam can stand motionless for hours or even days before making even a simple decision.

Humans can be very helpful in this regard. They can make most of the short term decisions for an alakazam. If the decision leads to a bad result, the alakazam sees themselves as virtually blameless and they feel only mild shame from it. In exchange alakazam make for fearsome protectors, powerful telepaths and very wise advisers. However, because alakazam are constantly sifting through the thoughts and memories of everyone around them only natural psychics can withstand their presence for long enough to gain their trust. All others will develop horrible migraines and, if exposed for months on end, cancer or dementia.

Because of their utility to psychics and psychics' prominent role in early civilization, alakazam were traded between courts and brought by conquerors to their new lands. In time, captive alakazam spread throughout most of the old world. In the wild they are still limited to areas with either large silver deposits or a long lineage of alakazam that have left their spoons behind.

Alola's silver deposits are so small and diluted that commercial mining is infeasible and alakzam were introduced less than a century ago. These factors sharply limit the size and range of the population to a handful of small islands in the "Poké Pelago" and the city of Hau'oli. The former site has several active mineshafts that let abra get below the surface and begin sifting for silver. The latter has an abundance of silver that can be stolen. As such abra are usually seen as a pest species in Alola.

There have been serious discussions of culling the wild population and imposing a mandatory genetic registry of existing alakazam. These efforts have never moved past the proposal stage. It is extremely difficult to capture an abra and even harder to kill one. In practice, only psychics and baseline humans with highly specialized (and expensive) equipment can do so. Alakazam have a history of destroying said equipment when they learn about it. Human psychics are often reluctant to help destroy a pool of potential partners.

Trainers who test beneath a 150 on a PSY test are strongly discouraged from training abra. But if you happen to have psychic gifts, alakazam should be seriously considered as a partner.

Physiology

All stages of the evolutionary line are classified as pure psychic-types. This ruling is not controversial.

Abra are bipedal. Their torso, groin and feet are covered in thick, tan, leathery skin. Their arms and legs do not have as much protection and are instead covered in fine tan hairs. The skin covering their torso is either brown or, more rarely, purple.

Abra's head is disproportionately large for their size. Most of it is also covered in tan fur. They have large eyes and vaguely feline ears. While abra mostly experience the world through telepathy they require powerful senses to watch out for the dark types they cannot psychically detect. Abra also have a long, thin tail.

Kadabra for the most part look like larger and bulkier abra, but there are a few notable differences. Kadabra have a much longer and fluffier tail. The volume of this tail usually exceeds that of the rest of their body. Kadabra gain a small ridge under their groin that appears to help with moving the tail. They also gain a set of red markings on their groin and forehead. These markings are unique for each individual. Kadabra also have much longer and sharper claws than abra do. In addition, kadabra grow a long moustache that droops down past their chin.

The main external differences between kadabra and alakazam are that the latter loses their tail and red markings. Alakazam also tend to have much larger heads than kadabra. An alakazam's head continues to grow throughout its life. While the muscles in their frame clearly cannot support this, no stage of the evolutionary line has any particular reliance on their muscles. Sometimes a cornered kadabra or alakazam might lash out with their claws, but even these movements are powered by auto-telekinesis rather than any sort of muscles. In fact, alakazam's musculature is only powerful enough to keep them alive and slowly moving for roughly one hour.

Alakzam grow up to 1.6 meters tall. Excluding their spoons they weigh only about 25 kilograms. Alakazam live for up to eight years in the wild or twelve in captivity.

Behavior

Wild alakazam are nocturnal and forage under the cover of darkness. This initially confused researchers because alakazam's greatest threats are dark-types, which are generally nocturnal. However, this makes a degree of sense. During the day alakazam rely on their telepathy to detect threats and teleport away from them. They cannot easily read dark types, meaning that one can ambush and kill alakazam without much effort. So long as they are awake at night their powerful vision and hearing can help them detect predators.

Abra do little but sleep and teleport away from danger, often at the same time. Sometimes they even forage while asleep by levitating or teleporting up to the canopy and telekinetically picking berries to eat. Trainers with any desire to interact with a wild abra will likely be unable to do so as any intention to approach the pokémon will be interpreted as hostility and trigger a teleport.

Kadabra are only a little less lethargic than abra. They begin actively exploring human minds shortly after evolution to pick up on information they should know. But they are still very anxious and will only approach human settlements in the dead of night. Should anyone begin to stir the kadabra will teleport away before they are detected

Unlike abra, kadabra and alakazam are fiercely territorial. Some common areas are recognized around silver deposits or human settlements. Outside of these areas every single tree is claimed by one kadabra or alakazam and one only. They will not enter the territory of another even to mate or challenge another alakazam. Instead they will go to the border of the territory and send out telepathic waves inviting the territory's owner to come closer. Then they will either mate or engage in a contest of minds and wills until one party backs down and cedes part of their territory. This has led to viral videos of two alakazam staring at each other for hours, or even days, with no outward signs of aggression. Do not be fooled; these alakazam are at their most dangerous. Getting near a territorial dispute will give all but the strongest of psychics powerful migraines and possible mental illness.

Kadabra and alakazam are well known for their massive silver spoons. These channel and amplify their powers. This makes alakazam the most powerful terrestrial telepaths, legendary pokémon aside. Some alakazam do forge their spoons from earth. They begin to telekinetically sift through large quantities of soil and take out the trace amounts of silver until they have enough to assemble their spoon. As their life comes to a natural end, many alakazam will bury or hide their spoons. They leave a subtle telepathic ringing in them that attracts abra in need of a spoon. About half of kadabra in Alola get their first spoon this way. Kadabra tend to create their own second spoon and leave the buried ones for abra.

It is unclear exactly how alakazam turn tiny fragments of silver into a solid object. When asked the head of the Pokémon Studies department at the University of Hau'oli (an alakazam trainer himself) shrugged and said, "Magic, I think." Alakazam silver is chemically different from normal silver. It is far harder to bend or break and does not corrode. There is also a popular rumor that food eaten from an alakazam's spoon tastes better than normal. This is actually true. Sometimes an elderly alakazam will leave one or both spoons to their trainer. There is usually an understanding that they will be gifted to the alakazam's children when it comes time for them to evolve. But the alakazam will also usually lace the spoon with telepathic waves that induce mild feelings of pleasure and satisfaction in anyone who comes into contact with them as a parting gift to their trainer.

Alakazam are rather short lived for an intelligent humanoid species; most true psychics have human-comparable life spans and several intelligent species can live for centuries. Alakazam owe their short lives to their greatest gift: their intellect. In the wild elderly alakazam become so burdened with stored information that even simple decisions about food become impossible to make before they must sleep again. Eventually wild alakazam begin to starve to death. When this time comes, they will usually set out to hide their spoons. Then they will retreat to their favorite place in their territory, sit down and stay motionless until death takes them.

Even captive alakazam tend not to live much longer. Because they usually die around eight years of age in the wild macroevolution has not selected against deformities and illnesses that kill an alakazam later on. As such, modern medicine can only rarely allow an alakzam to see their fifteenth birthday.

Husbandry

Abra can be competently raised by non-psychics, but it is a rather difficult endeavor. Non-psychic trainers are not encouraged to raise a wild-caught abra as they will probably escape at the earliest opportunity. Already tame abra are a different story as they generally recognize their trainer and stay within 30 yards at all times. They will seldom allow anyone to come closer and will simply teleport away when approached. Because of this habit they will need to be fed by placing berries in a tray and leaving them alone. Abra should be fed roughly one-tenth of their body weight each day.

Fortunately all stages of the evolutionary line are very tolerant of pokéballs. Kadabra and alakazam will prefer socialization time to pick up new knowledge, but abra only need to be released for feeding. Unlike slowking and oranguru, alakazam absorb information passively. They also grow more and more wary of acquiring new information as they age, leading to them becoming rather reclusive. Most appreciate talking to their trainer, but they will not need puzzles or books to learn from. Alakazam are also not particularly emotional or affectionate; most conversations with them tend to be about the business at hand or intellectual curiosities rather than either party's feelings.

Illness

Outside of old age alakazam seldom get sick. They groom themselves by telekinetically lifting all particles and parasites off of themselves up to six times a day and they can generally detect rot with a quick telekinetic scan of an object. Poisoning and infection are rare. Alakazam also heal rather quickly on their own. When cut they can create barriers to hold blood inside of them, and they can set their own bones when needed.

Very strong physical hits can potentially kill an alakazam. Most high-level trainers know to pull their punches against alakazam; in return, alakazam trainers should know the limits of their pokémon and withdraw them whenever the potential for immediate lethal harm exists.

As they age alakazam begin to develop many health problems. Most illnesses affecting the body can be easily cured. Diseases of the brain are much more difficult. Strokes are the most common cause of death for alakazam. There are relatively few warning signs, beyond perhaps a telepathic warning from the alakazam themselves. Brain cancer and dementia are also rather common over the age of ten. Due to the risks of a sick and unrestrained psychic, most alakazam will request either euthanasia or the right to retreat to the wilderness to die alone when their time draws near. This is a decision the alakazam must be allowed to make for themselves, however long it takes them.

Evolution

As abra grow up, their tail begins to get bushier and their armor gets bulkier. At about the time they physically begin to resemble kadabra they will set out to acquire their first spoon. At some point in the future the kadabra will create their second spoon. Shortly after this their tail will fall off and their red markings will fade. The timing of these events is highly variable from pokémon to pokémon; the only real constant is that most alakazam will have reached their final stage by their fourth birthday.

The formal cutoff between evolutionary stages are marked by the acquisition or creation of the first and second spoon.

Battle

Alakazam is occasionally the single most used pokémon on the competitive pokémon scene. This is due to two main factors. To start with, alakazam are undeniably powerful. They think quickly, can teleport away from strikes, and their telepathic assaults can quickly faint almost anything that isn't another psychic, a dark-type, an extraterrestrial, a hive mind or an inorganic machine. While most trainers have at least one pokémon in those categories, once those checks are removed alakzam can be terrifying sweepers.

Human psychics are also disproportionally represented in the upper echelons of competitive play. Humans with a PSY score of 150 or higher make up less than 0.4% of the population. Those with PSY scores of 200 or higher make up less than 0.1%. Yet, among the Top 100 trainers, 17 test above 150 and 5 test above 200. All but two of those trainers have used an alakazam over the course of their career.

Twelve of the Top 100 trainers have an alakzam on their core team. While this may not sound dominant, only four pokémon are used more. No pokémon has ever had more than 20 ranked trainers using it at a time.

In competitive play alakzam usually function as rather simple sweepers. If they must fight something resistant to telepathic attack they can use focus blast, signal beam or shadow ball. Alakazam have surprisingly small and narrow elemental reserves leaving them mostly confined to the above three coverage attacks and hidden power.

There is an adage that if an alakazam is not attacking it is losing. This is not entirely true. Alakazam have access to a few defensive and utility options. Teleport combined with telepathic scans for incoming attacks are the most common strategy. Some incredibly fast pokémon can form and unleash an attack so quickly that alakazam do not have the time to prepare a teleport. In these cases alakazam also have access to recover, barrier, reflect, and light screen. Even a protected alakazam is still frail. Sometimes trainers using a dual screens alakazam forget this to their detriment. Alakazam can also use trick, encore and disable to prevent opponents from attacking at all. The attacks often fail to phase purely offensive opponents.

Alakazam can be checked and countered. While they are terrifyingly powerful they are also perhaps the frailest pokémon that sees regular competitive use. Anything fast enough to score a hit on an alakazam has a good chance of knocking it out or forcing the trainer to withdraw it (see Illness). Area of effect attacks can also make it harder for an alakazam to simply teleport out of the way. Telepathically resistant pokémon also give alakazam no end of trouble. Vikavolt has a mindset just alien enough that alakazam usually struggle to crack it and bring them down before they take a thunderbolt. Some powerful dark-types such as hydreigon, gharain, spiritomb and tyranitar also check alakazam. All but spirtomb will not appreciate taking a focus blast but it usually will not knock them out in less than three hits.

On the island challenge trainers with a kadabra or alakazam will likely need to put less thought into using them than they would on the competitive scene. Almost nothing can withstand the combination of shadow ball, focus blast and psychic. While the latter two moves might be difficult to acquire TMs for, alakazam benefit from passive telepathic learning. If they spend enough time around or battling against pokémon that know those moves they will pick them up as well.

Abra will not be willing to fight until they are very near evolution. Otherwise they will simply sense the intent to harm them the moment their opponent is on the field and then teleport out of bounds.

Acquisition

Kadabra and alakazam require a Class V license to possess for any trainer with a PSY score below 150. As such, trainers who do not qualify or expect to qualify are advised against obtaining an abra, even from another trainer. Non-psychic trainers can still capture, purchase or adopt an abra with a Class III license, but they will have to forfeit or release the pokémon upon evolution if they do not have a Class V license.

The rest of this guide will assume the trainer has a PSY score above 150.

Abra and kadabra can be captured with a Class I license, or purchased or adopted with a Class III license. The disparity is designed to get psychics to capture abra rather than adopt them. There is no compelling husbandry or safety reason for this disparity. It is simply designed to get trainers to capture wild specimens and remove a nuisance.

Alakazam cannot be captured from the wild as they are generally too stubborn and powerful to be captured and trained safely. They can be adopted or purchased with a Class IV license.

As mentioned above, abra and kadabra are most common in the area immediately around Hau'oli City. Zoroark predation has led to a decline in numbers near Route 1. In practice most kadabra are found in the woods immediately north of Hau'oli City. Some abra also live in the largest urban parks.

Kadabra and abra are far more common in the minor islands in and around the Poké Pelago. Trainers will need to pay a fee to access these areas and another fee for each pokémon captured.

Breeding

Alakazam mate once in their life. They will head to the edge of their territory and send signals to another alakazam. The two will meet at the border and have a silent discussion. This conversation can be broken several times for sleep or foraging. Neither will ever leave their own territory throughout this process.

Alakazam and the true psychics form a strange family of pokémon that has neither sexual nor asexual reproduction. Instead there is a meeting of the minds that results in the spontaneous creation of four to six eggs. Both parents will alternate caring for the eggs until they hatch. This takes about ten weeks.

After the eggs hatch alakazam pay no attention to their children or mates whatsoever.

Gender appears to be vestigial in alakazam. Homosexual and heterosexual reproduction are both possible. Alakazam appear to select mates based on territory size and intelligence more than gender.

In the wild alakazam do not crossbreed with other species. In captivity they can reproduce with most true psychics. Alakazam prefer not to mate with other party members. Instead trainers should partner with the trainer of a potential mate to arrange meetings. Both trainers should be present and the meeting should happen on neutral ground to best simulate the conditions of wild encounters. After reproduction occurs the eggs can be divided between the trainers. Alakazam need not look after their eggs directly so long as they believe that the eggs are safe. While they are comfortable living with their children until they evolve, they will not assist in caring for them.

Subspecies

Some alakazam from different regions have slightly different colorations, personalities, and abilities. The alakazam of Greece are well known for their extremely high wisdom and intelligence but rather low lifespans and offensive power. Congolese alakazam have green stripes and a much wider telepathic range than the other subspecies in exchange for offensive telepathic ability. Tibetan alakzam have rather thick fur and exceptional teleportation abilities but weaker mundane senses than most other subspecies.

The alakazam in Alola come from a mix of several different breeds. Inter-breed pairings are very common in both the wild and captivity. Individual alakzam have different strengths and weaknesses depending on their lineage.


	23. Persian

**Persian (Meowth)**

Overview

Historically, the popularity of torracat in Alola has limited the desire for any other cat species. Other islands' experiences with invasive cats have also led the Commonwealth government to restrict feline importation. Pyroar, their most notable failure, is a large predator that only occupies territory and a niche once held by torracat. As such pyroar's introduction has really only hurt one native species.

Persian is the only other cat to gain any sort of foothold in Alola.

The species was brought by early trading expeditions from Japan, the only place where they are endemic. For a few generations persian were the beloved pets of the Alolan royal family. Then King Ka'eo ascended to the throne. One of his first acts was to give away all of the persian in the royal court. It is believed that he did so out of a long-running spat with a persian during his childhood. In any case, many of the persian found their way into the homes of Japanese immigrants in Malie City or the rising merchants of Hau'oli City. Their owners viewed Persian ownership as a status symbol that set them apart from the torracat of the lower classes.

Ironically, the Alolan persian has had extensive interbreeding with torracat during the last few centuries. This, combined with some breeders actively selecting for darker coats, led to the differences between the Japanese and Alolan persian.

Persian are proud and temperamental, but they can be loyal and affectionate to their trainer. Unfortunately the black cats are not the strongest in battle. Trainers looking to add a meowth or persian to their team should be willing to trade a lack of power in the short term for a for companion after the journey ends.

Physiology

Meowth and persian are both classified as pure dark-types. This is due to the unique properties of their thick fur, which disrupts telepathy of all kinds. A shorn persian has no special psychic resistance. As such there is a push for a dual dark- and normal-typing. Because meowth are born with a coat of fur and never lose it, the Department of Agriculture has previously rejected a typing change.

While mostly quadrupedal, meowth are capable of standing on their hind legs for short periods. Their coat is dark gray with slightly lighter fur at the end of their feet and tip of their tail. Meowth have typically feline paws on both their arms and legs. They also have a long prehensile tail they can use for balance and grip. Meowth's most notable feature are their wide, ovular heads. Part of this shape is an exaggeration created by their fur; their actual head is about half as large as it appears. Meowth have long, prominent whiskers and ears. They also have what appears to be a golden coin growing out of their forehead. This object is actually metallic. It is slowly grown from small quantities of scrap metal that meowth eat. While meowth can live without it, the coin is directly attached to their skull. This makes removal only possible through surgery and almost always inadvisable. It is unknown at this time what purpose the coin serves

Persian are slender and quadrupedal. Their claws are much longer than a mewoth's and their ears are rounded rather than pointed. Persian also lose their coin in favor of a small gem. The color of this gem varies but it is usually blue. The gem is bioluminescent and can be used to provide dim silvery light to help persian see on the darkest of nights.

Meowth and persian produce sounds over a range of pitches very similar to humans. Persian screams sound uncannily like a screaming human woman and they make them often to scare away other cats or predators. Roughly one-eighth of the Malie Police Department's nighttime calls are in response to persian screams.

Persian grow up to 1.3 meters in length including their tail. They typically have a mass around 15 kilograms. The average persian lives for about 12 years in the wild and 18 in captivity. The oldest Alolan persian on record lived to be 31 years old.

Behavior

Meowth tend to stay on the ground when they are not with their mother or sleeping. They hunt at night. Most of meowth's prey are sick, wounded, or starving rattata, although they will also hunt insect pokémon and abra. Unlike persian, meowth are rather social. After they leave their mother but before they evolve meowth congregate in groups to sleep, groom and socialize. However, they hunt on their own.

Persian occupy an entirely different physical space and ecological role in the environment than meowth. While they tend to ignore or assist banks of meowth, they are fiercely territorial towards other persian. Persian are built for the arboreal life. Their sharp retractable claws and long prehensile tail allow them to move along tree branches and rooftops almost as easily as they move on land. Persian can jump up to four meters vertically or six horizontally. Their light is nearly indistinguishable from moonlight and thus doesn't trigger panicked reactions from drowsy prey species. Persian primarily hunt small bird pokémon resting for the night. While they love eggs and will happily eat any they find, there are not many adult bird pokémon in Alola that a persian can beat in a straight fight. If persian cannot find any birds they are prone to lying in wait on tree branches and then pouncing on any prey that walks beneath them.

Persian are often described as cruel. It is true that persian are prone to breaking the wings of their prey before killing and consuming them. However, this is often to provide their babies practice in killing without subjecting them to actual danger. When female persian do this while they are not nursing or pregnant it is usually a sign that they are in heat and would like to mate. Males are considerably less likely to prolong killings than females are.

Meowth and persian are among the most playful of feline pokémon. In the wild they will approach and explore any changes in their territory. They will occasionally dissect unfamiliar species, but only after killing them. Persian are prone to digging through unsecured garbage cans to find new playthings. Meowth do this as well, but their purpose is mostly to find metal.

Husbandry

Meowth are rather curious and social as well as nocturnal. These traits make them somewhat more difficult to care for than litten, eevee, and most canine pokémon.

A stationary trainer can provide a meowth with many toys or periodically rearrange their environment. Meowth should be played with around dusk and dawn. At night they should be given access to their trainer's bed. They will disturb their trainer's sleep on most nights, but if physically separated from their trainer they are liable to scream like a murder victim until they are given attention. Meowth should not be put into their pokéball at night if the environment is safe for them to explore; containing them for too many nights in a row will lead to the pokémon becoming very irritated when released.

Most successful meowth trainers have at least one other social nocturnal pokémon on their team. This pokémon can keep the meowth company at night and generally keep the cat away from their trainer. A powerful nocturnal pokémon can also supervise a meowth during journeys as they explore their environment. It should be noted that persian will not usually be willing to supervise a meowth and will almost never tolerate another persian (see Breeding).

Meowth can be fed eggs, fish, and most types of meat. Some meowth have a preference as to whether their food should be cooked or raw but they will usually tolerate it either way. Their diet should be shifted periodically to prevent them from getting bored. Metal supplements should be purchased from specialty pokémon stores and fed as directed. Meowth require only very small amounts of metal in their diets and trainers trying to play it by ear will usually give their meowth far too much. This can lead to metal poisoning (see Illness). Both persian and meowth should be fed roughly 4% of their body weight per day.

Persian are nearly as playful as meowth but they express it differently. Traveling trainers should try and camp near trees and allow their persian to explore at night. This is banned in some protected areas or near vulnerable bird populations. Check with local Pokémon Centers as to where persian can be left unsupervised.

Stationary trainers should provide their persian with many perches and walkways positioned so that the persian can move from one to another without touching the ground. They will usually drag their toys up onto a perch to play with. Unfortunately persian have a habit of viewing anything shiny or unfamiliar as a toy. This can lead to all of their trainer's keys and jewelry being hidden on top of cabinets or on high shelves.

The bulk of a persian's diet should be made up of eggs and poultry. Other meats should be provided from time to time. Persian generally will not eat generic cat mixes and will need to be fed fresh raw or cooked meat.

Persian will generally want to be in the same space as their trainer around dusk and dawn. Sometimes they will approach their trainer to be pet. They will generally hiss or scream at any other humans who try to touch them. At night persian will alternate between exploring their perches and lying down near their trainer.

Illness

The most common illness among captive meowth s metal poisoning. If a meowth is exposed to too much metal it may vomit, run a fever, become lethargic or, in extreme cases, die. If your meowth exhibits any of these symptoms or an abrupt change in behaviors cut metal out of their diet for a week. If the symptoms persist consult a veterinarian.

Metal deficiency is possible but rare in captive meowth. A metal-deficient meowth will begin to ignore orders, rummage through garbage or attempt to eat jewelry or electronics. The solution to this problem is to gradually increase the amount of metal in the meowth's diet until the symptoms stop. It should be noted that meowth naturally hoard and are fascinated by shiny objects. It is only when they begin to bite into metallic objects outside of their food bowl that action should be taken.

Evolution

Meowth gradually evolve into persian. They become lethargic for a time and seek out easy kills, including garbage left out by humans. Over the course of one to two months their spine extends and they stop standing bipedallyTowards the end of this process the meowth's coin will fall off and reveal a gem underneath it.

In the wild this process occurs earlier and faster if the meowth is integrated into a bank of other meowth. The evolving pokémon's comrades will provide protection and food during this critical period. Captive meowth also experience a faster, earlier, and smoother evolution if they have a great deal of trust in their trainer or teammates.

Battle

No professional trainer has used a persian on their main team since 1904. In the very early days of international leagues it was common for nobles and businessmen from Japan to use them. They were met with little success and gradually stopped being used.

Persian have some of the tools needed to succeed. They are fast and agile as well as naturally predatory and clever. This means that, in theory, they should be able to learn and use a variety of utility moves while retaining enough power to take down opponents. Combined with their naturally thick coat and speed persian could have a niche on quickstall teams.

Unfortunately these strengths are balanced by very real weaknesses. Persian don't have a particularly deep utility movepool. And while their coats are bulky, persian's bones are a different story. Persian's elemental reserves and physical strength are both well below average on the competitive scene. Worst of all absol does many of the same things with a sharper blade, better movepool, and precognition to make up for their slightly lower speed.

On the island challenge persian functions as a glass cannon. They can rip into unarmored opponents but can't take many hits themselves before going down. Persian function best with the help of a few utility moves for dodging blows. Good moves include parting shot, protect and double team. Persian should be instructed to use trees and any other obstacles on the battlefield to maneuver around opponents.

Meowth are brutal scrappers, even if their claws aren't as long or sharp as those of a persian. Trainers should always put their meowth on the attack, getting into the opponent's face and never letting up for even one second.

Acquisition

The DNR attempts to limit the spread of persian beyond the city limits of Malie and Hau'oli. Persian and meowth captured outside of these areas may carry a bounty if the trainer chooses to trade the pokémon in. This policy leads to a large number of persian and meowth in shelters available for purchase.

Meowth may be adopted, purchased or captured with a Class I license. Persian can be adopted or purchased with a Class II license, captured with a Class II license inside city limits and captured with a Class I license outside of city limits.

Trainers who want to capture a meowth are advised to stay motionless in a public park at night. Ideally a predatory pokémon with night vision should assist. It is legal to bait meowth within city limits. Raw fish and eggs generally work best. Because meowth hunt alone it is likely that only one will show up. If a larger group arrives, proceed with caution.

Persian are more difficult to spot or capture. They tend to move above human's heads, a problem compounded by their coat serving as good camouflage at night. While baiting persian is legal within city limit it is unlikely that they descend to ground level to take the bait. Anything strong enough to shake a persian out of a park tree is also likely to damage the tree itself. It is generally easier to look for persian in the daytime while they are resting. It is still very difficult to spot them but they will usually be too lethargic to immediately put up a fight.

Breeding

Wild persian are territorial and are only social during breeding season in the winter. Persian have a roughly eight week pregnancy. They typically give birth to twins although triplets are not uncommon. Mothers will stay with their children for roughly three months before they start to behave aggressively towards their young to get them to leave.

Persian are not territorial towards meowth banks. They are known to keep a watchful eye over the meowth in their territory and intervene to stop predators or, in some cases, prevent starvation.

Captive persian should not be kept with other persian or the adults of any other cat species. Foxes and foxes are occasionally but not always accepted. Trainers wishing to breed their female persian should arrange for a male to join the team during breeding season. Once pregnancy is confirmed or the female begins behaving aggressively towards the male the pair should be separated again. It is important to give away the meowth when their mother begins to reject them. There is some evidence that persian prefer to have occasional contact with their children until they evolve.

Subspecies 

Alolan persian sometimes have varying coat patterns depending upon their parentage. Torracat-persian hybrids, the most common in Alola, tend to have dark stripes faintly visible in the coat. Umbreon-persian hybrids tend to have spots. Pyroar-persian hybrids occasionally have a small mane.

The only other Persian subspecies is the Japanese persian. Due to the relative scarcity of large land predators in the more urbanized areas of Japan the subspecies is diurnal and seldom takes refuge in the trees. They tend to live in sparsely-wooded grasslands and hunt the prey too small for arcanine but too large for fearow and pidgeot. Curiously, the Japanese persian live alone but hunt in packs. One persian will actively chase the prey, cutting into it when they can. The rest flank the target, funneling it into one direction. At some point a persian hiding in a tree will leap down and slash at the target's throat or another weak point. If the initial strike is unsuccessful all other persian will rush in and use their claws to rip into their prey until it is dead. Their favorite prey are raticate, hypno and sometimes even tauros and miltank.

The Japanese persian has a white coat that is considerably smoother and thinner than their Alolan counterparts. Their claws are also slightly less sharp while their muscles are stronger.


	24. Magnezone

**Magnezone (Magnemite, Magneton)**

Overview

The May 1911 cover story of _The Battler_ laid out the case for why magnezone was going to be a dominant force in the nascent metagame. In fact, the author suspected it might be the first pokémon to be banned altogether. Magnezone are and were overwhelmingly powerful, very sturdy, hover over most opponents and have a niche as a trapper for steel-types, the main checks to dragons at the time. They are even found in most of the world's countries.

And yet magnezone has never cracked the top fifty most used pokémon in the metagame. To top it all off the rise of vikavolt has led to the rapid decline of magnezone on the competitive circuits. So what happened?

In short, magnezone is one of the most expensive pokémon to train. They don't eat as much food as snorlax or wailord; magnezone are actually quite capable of feeding themselves, with perhaps a few thousand dollars worth of electricity a month to supplement. They do not require much in the way of specialist supplies. No, magnezone are expensive because they have the highest insurance requirement of any pokémon in the Alola pokédex.

Pokémon insurance covers damages your pokémon might do to the property (and life and limb) of others. Most pokémon have no insurance requirement, although it can be purchased. The League provides trainers on the island challenge with $10,000 worth of insurance automatically. Large predators often carry a mandatory coverage requirement. For metagross and vanilluxe, the government requires a minimum coverage of $10,000,000. Magnezone carry a minimum of $50,000,000. There are ongoing debates as to whether this threshold should be raised.

Magnezone are highly unlikely to directly kill anyone. But their most powerful attacks can fry electronics within a ten kilometer radius. This can deal an absurd amount of property and economic damage. A swarm of magneton swept through Goldenrod City in 2003 and cost the local economy over half a billion dollars. As a result, trainers of magnezone must be both wealthy and willing to live far away from human civilization. While there are ascetic trainers, most professionals enjoy occasional access to running water.

Magnemite can be a worthwhile and powerful partner on the island challenge. It is even relatively easy to keep one from evolving. However, magnemite trainers should just accept that they can't own any personal electronics. And they will also have to accept that they'll probably never be allowed to evolve their partner.

Physiology

All stages of the evolutionary line are classified as dual steel- and electric-types.

Magnemite's main body is made up of concentric metal shells. The exact alloy varies by the region of birth. All but the outermost shell are constantly spinning in different directions and at different rates. The pattern allows the magnemite to fly and attack. Magnemite change the rotation of their layers by using the three screw protruding from their body, one that they keep oriented upwards and two beneath their eye.

Magnemite have a single eye protruding from their shell. Curiously, this eye is only a feature of the outermost layer; it does not extend any deeper than the shell. The eye does not appear to function like human eyes, but does absorb and process light. It is believed that a small chip at the base of this eye contains all of magnemite's nervous system. Magnemite can react to sound, but it is unknown how they hear.

Magnemite channel attacks through two horseshoe magnets, one on each side of their body. Right before they attack the magnets begin to spin very quickly with a small orb of energy appearing in the center. The magnets will abruptly stop spinning and an attack is unleashed from the orb.

Magneton are formed by three magnemite in an equilateral triangle. One is dominant and remains positioned at the top of the triangle. This magnemite retains all of its screws. The other two sacrifice one of their external screws to fuse them to the dominant magnemite. The resulting magneton retains the personality and behaviors of the dominant with only very small additions from the two others. However, all three processing chips remain active.

Magnezone look rather different from their preevolutions. Their body is split into three connected but distinct chambers. The largest is a spheroid in the center of the pokémon. This chamber holds three separate rotating shell structures. The upper portion of the spheroid has a barrier separating it from the bottom. This segment contains a large network of chips, circuitry and rotating spheres. There has not been a chance to study this network in detail as magnezone explode shortly after their deaths. As such, all observations have been conducted with very specialized equipment capable of scanning electric-types. Magnezone are not easily sedated and do not like being confined in tight spaces, making it difficult to observe them for long. There is a long antennae on top of the spheroid. This is used for receiving and transmitting signals (see Behavior).

The two other chambers of a magnezone are shaped like magnemite fused into the spheroid. Each have a single shell structure inside of them. Magnezone have three eyes, one on each chamber. The central eye is far larger than the other two. In fact, the other two eyes only seem to become active when the magnezone is preparing an attack, suggesting that they are only used for aiming. Magnezone have two very large screws on them, both attached to the back half of the magnemite portions. They have three large horseshoe magnets, one in front of each magnemite and one behind the spheroid. The back magnet is not used for attacking and appears to be entirely devoted to navigation, and perhaps to moving the three spheres inside the spheroid.

All three stages move in part by repelling themselves from the earth. They are also capable of creating a poorly understood force tentatively named "anti-gravity" that helps them levitate.

Magnezone can grow to be about two meters across and have a mass of 200 kilograms. Magnezone can live up to thirty years in the wild and fifty years in captivity.

Behavior

Magnemite feed upon electricity. In the past this restricted them to predation or parasitism on electric-types. Sometimes electric-types would congregate in such numbers that the environment itself became charged; magnemite were most abundant in these places and they are, to this day, their primary breeding grounds.

Modernity has led to an explosion in the number of magnemite in the world and the areas in which they can live. From the earliest days of modern electricity, guards have been required at power plants and along wires. Magnemite learned and began to prey upon the places where the lines connected to the homes themselves, as well as upon the generators of rural homes.

Magnemite and magneton are not particularly intelligent. They behave like automatons concerned only with feeding and survival. Some (mostly under trainer care) develop a sense of curiosity; their hardware is not well equipped for this feeling. In time they inevitably become paranoid and obsessed with triangles. In the very rare circumstances that these magnemite become dominant upon evolution and evolve again (see Evolution), the resulting magnezone are known to almost immediately attack centers of media, government, commerce, and (most curiously) mushroom farms.

Despite their lack of creativity and intelligence, magnemite are known to congregate in large swarms. The individuals do not seem to interact with or acknowledge each other and they do not coordinate collective strategies. Rather, it seems like they all have roughly the same ability to sense unsecured power sources and they all have the same analytical process for choosing which one to swarm.

Magneton behaviors are nearly identical to magnemite.

Magnezone behave rather differently than magnemite and magneton. To start with, they very seldom descend to the ground. Magnezone are most often found among the clouds absorbing static electricity. Clouds with a magnezone in them produce far less lightning. They are not social, although they are constantly emitting and receiving signals. This discovery and magnezone's bizarre anatomy and appearance led to widespread speculation that they are extraterrestrial. There is no solid evidence that this is not the case, but they don't seem to have much reaction towards any confirmed extraterrestrial species. And there is a far simpler explanation for these signals: they are communicating with others of their species. When a magnezone does descend to breed, another inevitably comes to the same location even if they started out hundreds or thousands of kilometers away.

Curiously, magnezone have a strong sense of justice. Magnezone on the surface are known to badly wound any carnivores they witness hunting. Human criminals caught stealing or engaged in violent crime will also catch a powerful thunderbolt, although it will seldom be lethal. Magnezone have a strong aversion to killing and can apparently calculate how to badly wound their target without dealing a fatal blow.

Husbandry

The first part of this section will focus only on magnemite, as their insurance rate is well within the limits covered by the League.

Magnemite are quite easy to care for so long as their trainer is very mindful of any electronics around. Most Pokémon Centers have well insulated rooms and equipment. If this is the case, then magnemite can be safely allowed to explore their trainer's room. Introducing a magnemite to a common area is still usually a faux pas due to the damage they can do to other trainers' personal electronics. Most pokédex models are well insulated, but most pokégear aren't. Magnemite won't kill a device just by being in the same room as it, but using an attack nearby or getting within a meter is likely to fry anything sophisticated and unprotected.

The entire line feeds upon electricity. They prefer direct current but will happily lap up alternating current as well. Many Pokémon Centers have specially designated power feeding rooms for electric-types. Those that do not will have batteries for sale that are designed for feeding electric-types. Magnemite will know what to do in either case. In an emergency, magnemite can feed directly from a generator. The trainer should ask permission before doing this. When a magnemite begins to droop closer to the ground or move slower, they should be fed. If a magnemite has a far higher energy level than usual, their intake should be reduced and they should be used in battle immediately to prevent random EMPs.

As mentioned above (see Behavior), magnemite are neither social nor curious. They will sometimes orbit their trainer, but this is about as far as they go in terms of play. Because they do not get bored, magnemite and magneton are quite comfortable spending almost all of their time inside of a pokéball. If a trainer really wants to interact with their pokémon, polishing the shell appears to make a magnemite happier.

Magneton and magnezone are far more prone to firing out random EMPs than magnemite are. As such, their minimum coverage rates are $1,000,000 and $50,000,000 respectively. Should a trainer decide to evolve their magnemite, the care for magneton is much the same. But they should be very, very cautious about their choice of battlefields and make sure that any opposing trainers have protected personal electronics.

Magnezone are a slightly different story. Unlike magnemite, which bond to anything that regularly feeds them, magnezone can always just drift off into the clouds if they want food. As such it is very difficult to bond with a magnezone unless they already have some faith in their trainer. Even then, newly evolved magnezone are still prone to just drifting off and never coming back. They will usually only stay with trainers who battle with them often and well. Magnezone like to spend at least a few hours at night out of their pokéballs. This should be allowed, if only because charge taken from the clouds is charge that does not have to be paid for. Magnezone are always emitting waves, but most of these are harmless to human health. They are absolutely devastating to personal electronics. Magnezone should always be kept in their pokéball unless deep in the wilderness or inside of a well-protected stadium.

As with their prior stages, magnezone do not require socialization. It is believed that they are always communicating with other magnezone and don't see a point in bonding with humans or other species. Training and polishing are all they want from a trainer.

Illness

Most magnemite "illnesses" are simply a result of low charge. If they are behaving unusually and have not been charged since their last battle or within the last week, let the magnemite charge for a while and then see if the problem is resolved.

Physical damage is rare. Most battles with a magnemite end when they lose charge, not when they're shell is broken. If the shell is ever broken, they were probably in a battle where they were dramatically outclassed. There is also very little that can be done to repair a wounded magnemite. If a magnezone is on hand, the repairs can sometimes be made. However the force required to twist a magnemite back into shape is likely to generate really powerful EMPs and alter the magnemite's personality upon reboot.

If a magnezone gets seriously wounded, they will float as high as it can and explode. Should a magnezone be killed in a way that does not even allow them to do that, they will probably explode within fifteen minutes of death.

Evolution

Magnemite can have a quick and apparently painless surgery done upon their bolts that renders them incapable of evolution. Trainers unwilling to pay for the insurance or adopt the ascetic lifestyle a magneton requires should do this.

Magnemite evolve when a group of three combat-tested magnemite encounter each other. They will engage in a three way melee until only one still has charge. The winner will charge themselves and then bond with the other two. This involves removing one screw from each, releasing the caps of their own screws and then linking their screws through the holes left in the other magnemite. The new magneton will position themselves in the air so that the dominant magnemite is on top.

Magneton only evolve in places where a very large amount of electricity has been readily available for some time. The magneton will spend even more time than usual charging. Sometimes they will leave to pick up the pieces of dead magnemite and integrate them into their own body. When there are no dead magnemite around, the magneton will simply kill one for parts. During the period where the dominant magnemite's body is being expanded restructured, most of the magneton's cognition occurs in the auxiliary magnemite's processing chips.

Once a magnezone body is fully completed, the newly evolved pokémon will fly up into the clouds. They will only descend again to breed.

Battle

Magnezone has a limited number of strategies and a limited movepool. But it is very effective at using what options it does have.

Their main role in combat is to levitate high enough over the field that grounded melee attacks cannot reach them. From there they fire off devastating thunderbolts, flash cannons and hyper beams until their target faints. They can also take a moment to lock onto a fast-moving target and all but guarantee that their next attack fries them. This makes them a particularly good counter to glass cannons and arena controllers.

Magnezone are also one of the best counters to steel-types in the metagame. Their unique abilities prevent steel-types from being withdrawn from the field while magnezone is in play. Magnezone can hover above a steel-type and then use their magnetism to pull their target up into the air. Once the target is almost to magnezone, they can be repulsed down towards the ground. This can be repeated until the target has fainted or magnezone runs out of charge.

Speaking of which, magnezone essentially only faint when they lose power. This means that every action, offensive and defensive, takes a toll on their staying power. As such using protect to avoid injury is actually counter-productive, because the shield costs more power than just taking the impact would. This means that stalling them out with a pokémon who can take all of the hits a magnezone can dish out and keep going is usually the best counter-strategy. Blissey, gastrodon, swampert, hippowdon and snorlax can't do much to hurt magnezone, but magnezone can do very little to hurt them, either. Because magnezone have a clear tell in their attacks (an orb forming in their horseshoe magnets), it's easy enough to outplay them with mixed protects, recovery moves and occasional attacks. Magnezone will inevitably switch out, but this at least gives the opponent some time to set up hazards or stat boosts.

The best offensive checks to magnezone are generally dragons that can take them on in the air and dish out powerful fire attacks. Hydreigon is their most reliable counter in the metagame, although they are somewhat rare. Flygon are not actually an effective counter because magnezone is likely to take them down with two or three locked-on hyper beams, while flygon's own attacks are not strong enough to substantially injure magnezone.

Again, despite their theoretical ability to hard-counter glass cannons, steel-types, birds and rain teams, magnezone has never been particularly popular on the circuits. Because even if a trainer loses to magnezone, at least they can train for their revenge in the presence of other people.

Due to their limited movepool, magnezone should theoretically battle the same on the island challenge as they do at the World Championships. No one has ever actually used one, though.

Magnemite are a common enough choice on the island challenge. They are surprisingly bulky, especially if their trainer can afford an eviolite. Their defensive typing and (limited) ability to hover away from attacks enhances this. They aren't particularly weak, either, and unlike most walls they won't have to rely on toxic stall and chip damage. However, anything they can't hurt with thunderbolt probably won't be hurt at all. Fighting- and fire-types can also usually overpower magnemite, especially at the end of the challenge.

Acquisition

The DNR runs a campaign to capture, operate upon, and release any magnemite they can find. As such, there are very few magneton in Alola. Occasionally a magnezone will show up and undo all of the DNR's hard work, but this is a once-in-a-decade event.

There are only two permanent magnemite colonies in Alola. The first is usually around Hau'oli City. They move between homes and infrastructure with unsecured electricity, finding a new home when they are shooed away. Locating the colony after a move carries a $100 reward. The other colony is on the Poké Pelago. Most magneton that do manage to evolve are relocated here, which in turn makes it the place that magnezone usually descend to breed (see Breeding). The government operates a poorly secured offshore windfarm here to drive magnemite away from the populated areas. The property itself is run by a private corporation with a public charter, meaning that there is a fee for capturing magnemite.

Magnemite require a Class II license to adopt, purchase or capture.

Magneton and magnezone may not be captured due to the risks involved in bringing an untrained one into an urban area. They may be purchased or adopted so long as their original trainer captured them as a magnemite. Magneton and magnezone require a Class IV license to possess.

Breeding

Some mineral pokémon reproduce in a way that, in spite of their strange biology, actually bears a good deal of resemblance to conventional organic reproduction. Magnezone is not one of these pokémon.

Sometimes two magnezone will depart from their trainer or orbit and meet up at the place where one member of the pair evolved at. The pair will first conduct repairs on all magnemite and magneton present. When this is finished, the native magnezone will scrounge up enough material to create eight new magnemite. They prefer to do this by recycling the bodies of magnemite that were beyond repair, but they can use their magnetism to mine and purify the necessary materials if need be. Then the non-native magnezone will shape the materials into their final form. The resulting babies have (roughly) the material composition of the native magnezone and the structure of the non-native magnezone.

Anecdotal reports from trainers suggest that magnezone reproduce exactly twice in their lives. They typically do so during periods of unusual solar radiation, such as during sunspots. Sometimes meteorite strikes or passing comets will also trigger reproduction.

It is impossible to breed magnezone in captivity. Captive magnezone will simply float away to reproduce whenever they feel like it. Some will return after roughly three weeks. Most will not. If your magnezone departs, stay in roughly the same area and make frequent phone calls from a pokégear or cell phone. If the magnezone has not returned after six weeks then they are not coming back.

Subspecies

None known.


	25. Muk

**Muk (Betobetaa, Grimer)**

Overview

In his 1913 novel "March of the Muk," author Henry Blackstone laid out a vision of muk as a strange creation of sludge and lunar x-rays that rose up from the oceans to destroy the cities. With humanity's greatest insults to the wilderness gone, the muk die off as if they had never been there at all. The view of muk as a scourge upon the civilized world was not new at the time. They seemed to come from nowhere around the turn of the 20th Century and thrived in the rancid sewers and industrial areas of the world's cities. While they first appeared near Japan, they quickly and almost simultaneously appeared near almost all of the world's coasts.

In truth, muk are not the creation of anything so fanciful as lunar x-rays. They were also not made by, or even in response to, humans. While they do not fossilize well, muk may have been living for millions of years on the seafloor. The _Challenger_ expedition captured what was probably a betobetaa several years before muk were seen on the surface. The ship was above the abyssal plains of the Mid-Atlantic at the time, half the world away from their eventual surfacing point.

The deep sea has no sunlight. No new plant life can grow there. The entire food chain is based off of scavenging the scraps that come from above. The abyssal muk is a relative of the slime mold that feeds not on the falling matter itself, but upon the bacteria and fungi that start to break it down. If necessary, they can kill other organisms and then wait for them to decompose.

The shelf muk is the subspecies that eventually came to the surface. They can function as a decomposer of decomposers, but they prefer to feed upon oil and natural gas leaking up from the seafloor. They do not directly eat the petroleum themselves. Rather, colonies of bacteria living inside of them break the oil and gas down into usable energy and put it back into the food web. When humans started bringing oil to shore and letting it run back into the sea, muk just followed the path until they found themselves in the harbors and rivers. Eventually, some mutated to live comfortably on land.

Once their food source and biology was better understood, engineers, chemist and biologists started to harvest terrestrial, shelf and abyssal muk to selectively cross-breed them. These processes eventually created a new pokémon, the LifeChem, Inc, muk. The species is more commonly known as the domestic muk. The domestic muk is patented and regularly "updated" to keep the newer breeds protected by the law. Older breeds are no longer patented and can be purchased, captured and bred at will.

The domestic muk readily breaks down most microbes, organic matter and plastics without seriously damaging glass or metal. This allows for the now-cleaned waste products to be easily recycled. Some breeds only consume oil, leaving plastics behind for recycling. The newest breed can break plastic down into a liquid form, letting it easily be remolded. Products cleaned by muk are very sterile because they consume bacteria and their bodies themselves are only barely toxic. Their flesh still should not be consumed; the "muk slime challenge" can be fatal. Unless they are actively defending themselves, though, domestic muk are usually safe to touch and even hug so long as the crystals are avoided.

Muk are good battlers that can cut down on the amount of trash a trainer has to carry with them between disposal sites. They are also relatively easy to feed, as they can eat plants or meat in a pinch (but they usually will only eat rotting, microbe-filled organic matter). They are not recommended for households with young children.

Physiology

Muk's typing is widely disputed. A poison primary typing is agreed upon; the second slot is a toss-up. Unlike most subspecies and most related species, the domestic muk is very resistant to psychic attacks that can fry the nervous systems of almost anything without a proper brain. They are also nocturnal. These factors suggest a dark-typing. However, muk are most comfortable in the water and need to fully submerge themselves at least once every few days. This suggests a water-typing. Other pokémon related to fungi have been given grass-typings. For now, the Department of Agriculture has given them a preliminary dark-typing and left the issue open to comment and discussion.

Grimer and muk have similar physiology, and betobetaa is best understood in comparison to them. As such, this section will not go through the anatomy of all three stages in detail.

Muk are closely related to slime molds. This means that they are an amalgam of many separate single-celled organisms, most capable of surviving outside of the collective. Some of these cells have dissolved the cell boundaries between each other, resulting in massive cells with multiple nuclei. This is also why they are so amorphous. Outside of their crystals, muk contain no hard structures.

Domestic muk generally stratify into specialized layers, similar to organs. These layers often have different colors. Some layers are devoted to dissolving specific microorganisms, others to digesting plastic and still others to generating attacks or neural processing. Despite their lack of a brain, muk are reasonably intelligent pokémon capable of solving puzzles, learning new moves, and displaying affection for their trainer.

Muk sense the world primarily through vibrations. This allows them to hear spoken words and differentiate between the voices and footsteps of individual humans. Muk appear to have eyes; however, these are simple eye spots. Muk can only determine whether light is present or absent. The species can also apparently sense chemicals in the air and water. This is how they find food.

Unlike the other subspecies, the domestic muk does not keep many poisons inside of their flesh. They do keep resident bacteria colonies inside of them, but these are mostly to help with digestion of plastics and bacteria and they not actively attack living tissue. Unlike other muk subspecies which must continuously find new food into their body to feed themselves, the domestic muk stores excess or particularly toxic materials inside of their crystals. When attacked, they absorb the crystals into their body to temporarily make their flesh more toxic. This helps deter any would-be predators and harm anything that keeps attacking them. These crystals can be removed and sometimes fall out on their own.

All stages of the evolutionary line appear to have a mouth. This is used to wholly absorb rotting materials, letting them break it down from all angles. Sometimes a muk will engulf an opponent to maximize their exposure to toxins and prevent them from fleeing. Grimer and muk have crystalline teeth lining their mouth for extra utility in battle.

Grimer are very similar to muk, except smaller and with crystals limited to their mouth and the area around their eye spots.

Betobetaa are not very developed. They have yet to stratify and, eye spots aside, their constituent parts tend to swirl around each other in a blend of colors. They also have yet to develop crystals. Newborn betobetaa are seldom more than 30 centimeters across.

Muk can usually only reach widths of 2.5 meters and weigh up to 50 kilograms.

Behavior

Muk are generally sedentary creatures. They will sit still and digest food when they find it. When a food source runs out, muk will retreat into the water for digestion, healing and safety. Muk prefer stagnant water, especially dirty water that lets them passively feed on bacteria. Adults are willing to enter running water, but grimer and betobetaa will generally avoid it unless they desperately need to hydrate.

A very hungry muk will attempt to hunt. Because of their low speed, they are mostly limited to sedentary Pokémon, animals and plants. Muk are one of the very few species that can digest slowpoke, but most will not take advantage of this. Lazy as they are, slowpoke still move faster than bacteria.

Muk were once believed to be a highly social pokémon. Terrestrial muk were almost always found in large colonies known as dumps. Shelf muk are also usually found congregated together. However, outside of crossover (see Breeding), members of all subspecies don't really interact with others. Terrestrial and shelf muk only form groups because their largest food sources tend to be constant and unmoving, allowing for many muk to find a particular spot and coexist peacefully. Muk do not fight each other for territory, but if a given dump is at capacity would-be newcomers tend to turn away and find their food elsewhere.

Domestic muk tend to rest during the day and become active at night. This was bred into them to make their circadian rhythm align to the times janitors need them most. While muk do not properly sleep, when inactive their mouth seems to disappear and they become a circular pile of colorful sludge with a very slight bulge and two white eye spots in the middle.

As mentioned in Physiology, muk respond to potential threats by breaking off crystals into their body. They will then rise up as high as they can and begin to groan. If the threat has still not left, they may begin to attack. If they do kill their assailant, the muk will stay near the same spot for days until the body is sufficiently decomposed to eat.

Husbandry

Betobetaa require very frequent feedings. They can and will eat up to half their body mass a day. It is impossible to overfeed one, so it is generally a good idea to leave them a large pile of trash that is periodically refilled. Betobetaa do not have crystals, which means that their body is always dangerous to the touch and they need all of the elements of their diet almost every day. Some of these items, such as plastics, dead plants and metal, are rather easy to keep on hand. More esoteric compounds, such as slightly radioactive material and some varieties of toxic sludge, will need to be purchased in small doses.

Raising a betobetaa is not recommended for the casual trainer and a variety of janitorial and waste disposal agencies across the commonwealth will happily buy them.

Grimer and muk need to be fed less and do not require all of their diet every day. They have been bred to eat a diet matching the typical load at a landfill. As such, the average trainer's trash will usually keep a muk satiated. They may supplement their diet by roaming their environment and eating any bacteria they find. This, combined with their sterile exterior, makes them popular with hospitals for sterilizing equipment and rooms. The easiest way to get a muk's radiation needs met is to loan them to a Pokémon Center so they can clean the equipment. The sludge mix muk require can be purchased at most Pokémon Centers, hardware stores, or pokémon supply stores.

Muk will adjust the amount of bacteria in their body to match their average long-term diet. Newly captured or purchased muk should be fed more or less the same things they were previously eating and slowly be weaned into whatever a trainer needs them to eat. To maintain maximum size, a muk should be fed about 15 kilograms of trash a week.

Muk are aquatic pokémon and should be given the chance to fully submerge themselves at least once a week. If this is not possible they should at least be stored in a dive ball. These are not perfect substitutes for actual submersion and muk are happiest if they can swim frequently, but dive balls will at least keep a muk alive. Muk prefer stagnant pools, but have no preferences on water temperature, pH, or salinity.

Many trainers are often surprised to learn that grimer and muk can be rather affectionate to the humans who feed them. Some will initiate cuddling. Most will at least tolerate it. Before they embrace their human, muk will slowly move all of their crystals to one side of their body. They should only be touched from the other side. If initiating contact, slowly stroke one area of the pokémon's body. This should lead the muk to shift their crystals. If the muk keeps their crystals in place, they probably do not want to be touched.

Do not touch a muk within 24 hours of battle.

Muk can slowly be trained to be diurnal, but most will always be a little sluggish in the day. Stern verbal commands can usually stir an inactive muk into moving. It is easiest to train a muk to be awake in the day if the pokémon is kept in a brightly lit area with water at night, and in a dark room with food during the day. After two weeks of this, almost all muk will have shifted their sleep schedule.

Muk sometimes enjoy puzzles. Systems of tubes with trash at the end are a favorite of the species. However, muk will usually try to eat pvc pipes and other plastic obstacles instead of playing with them. Metal toys work best (although they can and eventually will digest those, too). Because they sense the world through vibrations, many muk have shown a fondness for music. They usually settle upon a preferred genre or artist in time.

Illness

Most muk illnesses fall into three categories: dehydration, nutrient deprivation or starvation.

Dehydration illnesses manifest as muk being slower or less obedient. If a muk's movement speed is noticeably slower than usual, allow them to be submerged in water until they decide to leave. The same applies if a muk is disobedient or aggressive for no clear reason, as they could be trying to get away and find water. Long term dehydration can lead to muk disincorporating into a pile of toxic crystals and bacteria-laced sludge.

Disincorporation is perhaps the only way a muk can die. Dehydration is by far the most common cause of death in domestic and terrestrial muk. It can also be caused by extensive attack damage, particularly from sound- and wave-based attacks (see Battling).

Nutrient deprivation illnesses manifest as one color layer growing much larger than before or one layer growing smaller. As most layers correspond to one digestive function, check the muk breed's guidebook to figure out what needs to be increased or reduced in their diet. Long-term deprivation of one nutrient usually will not kill a muk, but it will render them permanently unable to digest one food source.

Starvation results in a muk growing smaller over time. Reproduction and damage in battle can also result in shrinkage. If muk looks smaller or weighs less than usual, their feedings should be increased in size or frequency.

If any of the above remedies do not solve a problem, or if muk begins shedding more than one crystal a month, seek professional veterinarian help from a Pokémon Center or LifeChem store.

Evolution

With the partial exception of betobetaa, muk stay in much the same shape throughout their entire lives. Whether or not grimer should even be a recognized as a distinct stage is a hotly debated question. The main anatomical differences between betobetaa and muk are their size, lack of stratification, and lack of crystals.

Because the size of a muk is in a state of constant flux from consumption, reproduction, and damage, size is not a consistent indicator. Stratification is. When betobetaa grow, they shift from different bubbles of cells to distinct layers, each with its own color. Once stratification has occurred, the newly evolved grimer begins to slowly grow crystals. These develop first in the mouth and later in the areas around it. When the first crystal grows away from the face area, the grimer has formally evolved into muk.

Muk is the rare species of pokémon that doesn't experience a rapid increase in growth and maturation rates in times of frequent combat. Instead their growth is almost entirely tied to the amount of food they consume. Betobetaa can incorporate up to one-fifth of their body weight every day, grimer up to one-quarter, and muk up to one-sixth.

Battle

Both domestic and terrestrial muk and frequently used in the international circuits. Muk don't have conventional organs or weak points to damage. They are hurt the most by vibrations or attacks that effect their entire body at once. This makes muk the best counter in the metagame to technical physical attackers such as scizor, weavile, and sceptile. Physical birds often struggle against muk as well, because their beaks generally can't do enough damage to muk to justify the proximity. Full body impacts run a very high risk of poisoning.

Domestic muk are more frequently used than terrestrial muk at this time. Domestic muk are highly resistant to telepathic attacks, the best counter to terrestrial muk. However, terrestrial muk can be far more toxic than domestic muk. This makes domestic muk an excellent wallbreaker; anything slow enough to be caught up in their body has a very limited amount of time left on the field. Because their bodies are filled with natural herbicides, domestic muk are also a counter to many physical or defensive grass-type pokémon. This has been famously exploited by Miguel Cabrera, champion of the Amazonian Federation, fifth highest ranked trainer in the world, and winner of 29 of the last 40 Pan-American Invitationals. The South and Central American metagames are filled with grass-types and technical attackers and are short on ground-types, making his muk almost as iconic and useful as his harpyre.

Both subspecies are countered by any decently fast pokémon with a strong seismic move. Some powerful water-type attacks, such as surf or muddy water, can also serve the same purpose. Fast fliers with projectile attacks can usually dodge most of muk's attacks and fire back their own. However, these birds are often unable to deal serious damage to muk, allowing the opposing trainer to run down the clock and switch.

A muk's usual offensive movepool includes poison jab, toxic, venoshock and a projectile poison move such as gunk shot or sludge wave to hit fliers and fast projectile users. Protect, acid armor, torment, disable, pain split and substitute are useful for surviving earthquakes, but they can't save muk in the long term. Even the most defensive of muk usually will not hold out long enough to be able to switch out against a powerful earthquake user. These moves dramatically boost muk's ability to wall non-earthquake users (and-non psychics, in the case of terrestrial muk). Their elemental well is not large, but some muk are taught thunderbolt, ice beam and stone edge to increase their ranged offensive options.

Like the South American leagues, the South Pacific metagame is dominated by grass-, water-, and flying-type pokémon. On the few islands where ground-types exist in large numbers, most serious trainers don't bother to catch them. This makes powerful water-type moves the only real counter for muk on the island challenge, with ranged fliers like vikavolt serving as an important check. Powerful physical attackers that know earthquake, while rare outside of the very top teams, can also wreck a muk.

Grimer is an extremely good pokémon for the early island challenge as almost all weak pokémon function as technical attackers. This allows muk to single-handedly take down almost all teams on the first island and most of the second. Muk stays useful up to and including the pokémon league. Trainers are unlikely to be able to teach their muk the full list of defensive moves outlined above, but one or two in combination with toxic and venoshock are all muk really needs to succeed. Trainers can also use a dark-type move such as knock off to take advantage of muk's telepathy resistance and turn them into psychic-slayers.

Acquisition

Grimer requires a Class II license to capture, purchase, or adopt. Muk require a Class III license to purchase or adopt. Betobetaa require a Class IV license to possess. Only grimer may be legally captured in the region.

Most grimer in Alola are held in the four Waste Depository Centers, one on each of the main islands. They can also be purchased from private trainers and LiveChem stores. From time to time, the Waste Depository Centers will release excess grimer into the area around them for trainers to capture. These releases are usually publicized a week after they happen in to allow the grimer some time to spread out. After a certain period of time passes, the DNR sets out to recapture any muk or betobetaa that still exist in the wild.

These four centers are in East Hau'oli, Route 4, Malie Cape, and The Battle Tree.

Breeding

Muk imitate sexual reproduction through two separate events. The first is crossover. This occurs when two muk are around each other for a long period of time and develop a mutual respect. The two muk will coalesce into one pile and then pull apart into two distinct muk. This process works across subspecies and results in sister muk that are essentially the biological offspring of the pair. In captivity the trainer that the new muks choose to follow is essentially random, with one going with each trainer roughly half the time and both going with one the other half. Which muk remembers which moves and strategies is also essentially random. Crossover can be prevented by not allowing a muk to spend more than two weeks with another member of their species.

Betobetaa are produced asexually. Muk prefer not to get above a certain size, although their exact terminal mass varies by individual. When a muk is at terminal mass and consumes more food, they will mix some of every layer in their body into a ball and release it. The betobetaa awakens and begins moving within six hours of formation. Betobetaa are sometimes loyal to their parent's trainer and often retain knowledge of most of the same moves, even if they do not have the proper anatomy or energy well for using them yet. Some specialty breeders exploit this to sell betobetaa or grimer with deep movepools and battle experience.

After a captive muk produces a betobetaa, the muk should be weighed to determine the mass they reproduce at. If you do not desire any more reproduction, make sure to keep the muk below that mass.

Subspecies

As mentioned in the introduction, there are four subspecies of muk. The domestic muk has been covered above.

The terrestrial muk is the most toxic of the subspecies and can wilt small plants just by passing within three meters. They are only found around the most polluted of industrial waste sites and landfills. They must hydrate daily which further restricts their range. Modern environmental laws have rendered the terrestrial muk all but extinct in developed economies, with the remaining populations persisting at facilities explicitly designed for keeping the terrestrial muk alive. These centers are often run by professional trainers who are fond of muk, but are sometimes run by environmentalists who want the subspecies to live on for its intrinsic value.

Terrestrial muk are still a major health concern in some developing economies. Portions of coastal Brazil, the Gold Coast of Africa, the Arabian peninsula, and the Indonesian archipelago still have very high concentrations of terrestrial muk, usually along the coast but sometimes in ponds or rivers.

Shelf muk usually live along the seafloor at the edge of the continental shelf. They are the lightest subspecies, but usually spread out to about the area the average domestic muk takes up. Drone observation suggests that most shelf muk stay unmoving for months at a time. They only appear to move when one of the rare pokémon that preys on gelatinous organisms approaches. They begin to move quite quickly when predators are nearby, rising off of the seafloor and flapping their body in a pattern remarkably similar to a jellyfish. Shelf muk usually attack by sending out jets of highly toxic water or wrapping themselves around an attacker. They can also make sudden movements that send pressure waves through the water, but these are only usually powerful enough to stun an opponent. While shelf muk can go above the surface for very short periods of time, they are extremely reluctant to do so. The difficulty of capturing them and their expensive diet make them uncommon in captivity, but some LifeChem breeding centers and public aquariums keep them.

Abyssal muk have been sighted on the abyssal plains of the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Like most decomposers, they are most common in equatorial areas where surface primary productivity is rather high. They are seldom seen near the continental shelf, outside the tropics, or in ocean trenches. They also appear to be absent from hydrothermal vent ecosystems.

The abyssal muk is pure white. They are the heaviest subspecies and have the largest resting area, seldom becoming more than five centimeters thick. When food falls, they move along the seafloor like a shallow white wave. It is unclear how long muk stay in one place, but captive specimens have gone up to three years without eating before they became agitated. There is video of muk attacking and consuming wimpod and pyukumuku, suggesting that they may be both a scavenger and the apex predator of the seafloor. The abyssal muk appears to be hydrokinetic and able to still the waters ahead of themselves while they move, which keeps prey from being alerted to their presence.

LifeChem used to keep abyssal muk in their breeding centers. This is where almost all of our knowledge of the subspecies comes from. It took months to adjust abyssal muk to surface pressures and they never seemed to fare well in captivity; most died of apparent nutrient deficiency within five years. The abyssal muk breeding program was discontinued in 2008. It is still not known what else they needed in their diet to survive.


	26. Mr Mime

A/N: This entry is partially based on two chapters of the fic "The Fair Folk" by Huinari. I strongly recommend checking out that story if you like this one.

 **Mr. Mime (Mime Jr.)**

Nomenclature

Unusually, this entry must begin with a note on a species name. The species whose adult form is usually referred to as "Mr. Mime" does not appear to have a biological sex. They reproduce by a bonded pair manifesting a physical egg. No physical contact is required to do this. The species does not communicate telepathically with even very experienced psychics, although species closely related to them can communicate with trainers who have PSY scores as low as 110. As such, they cannot directly communicate whether or not they have a gender identity. Individuals given access to human clothing tend to use both male- and female-coded items indiscriminately. Most quickly get bored and stop putting on any at all. There is substantial debate as to whether or not a gendered clothing preference would even matter.

In 1997, the Department of Agriculture renamed Mr. Mime to mime sr. After the most recent volume of this text was published, the government abruptly reversed that decision without a comment period. Unusually, they did not provide a statement justifying the decision.

While we are ordinarily hesitant to speculate on the reasoning of the Department of Agriculture, the current President of the United States once said during a campaign speech: "Folks, men are under attack. When I grew up it was Mr. Mime, now it's, get this, 'mime sr.' Can you believe that? We —they always say, look, women need to be proud right? Well, what about men? Why can't men be proud? In China they're proud. That's why they're winning. [Eleven pages of transcript discussing China, automobiles, CNN, his hotels on the Arabian peninsula, a Best Actress nominee, three primary opponents, his hands, European clocks, daylight savings time, and recycled plastic have been omitted.] And let me tell you, when I'm president we're going to make Mime Mr. again. Believe me. Believe me."

Reflecting the formal guidance of the Department of Agriculture, future versions of this guidebook will be updated to change references from Mime Sr. to Mr. Mime. For now, the online and pokédex models will begin with this note. The rest of the entry will refer to the adult form of the species as Mr. Mime.

Introduction

Pokémon are usually grouped into three superkingdoms: the organics, the machines, and the phantoms. Organic pokémon more or less obey the rules of biology, with a few quirks and biologically inexplicable powers. Machines at least imitate biology, even if they reproduce asexually and are based on silica rather than carbon. The phantoms usually don't resemble life at all; it simply appears as if some extradimensional force is acting on an object, causing it to move and express itself.

There does appear to be a 'missing link' between the organics and phantoms that is still very much alive today: the true psychic genus. True psychics imitate biology when alive and often have typically mammalian hairs and body shapes. They even DNA that appears to determine phenotypes.

Everything else about them is bizarre. They appear to feed on emotions, thoughts and other mental and spiritual energies, like the phantoms often do. When true psychics die, their bodies disappear altogether. True psychics also distort the dimensional fabric around them to a much greater degree than even the phantoms.

Mr. Mime was originally native to Kalos. They became a popular companion of traveling bards for their uncanny ability to mimic the movements of others and to create invisible barriers out of thin air. They were steadily exported to other regions as bards traveled farther and farther with advances in naval technology and international trade routes. Backlash often followed. The king of Galar found them to be creepy and demonic, and he tried to cull every single Mr. Mime in the country as a response.

In 1956, a circus was set up in Hau'oli. While initially popular, it found itself deeply in debt and with declining attendance. The owner decided to close the circus and release all of the pokémon in it. This established the first colony of Mr. Mime on Alola. The DNR determined that Mr. Mime are relatively harmless (as far as fairies go, anyway), don't compete for organic food, and are popular with competitive battlers, wealthy families, and some children. As such, more Mr. Mime were imported to further increase the resident population.

Mr. Mime are incredibly solid battlers (albeit ones that require some skill to use), often willing to help with routine chores, and do not require their trainer to purchase and carry around food for them. If trainers can put up with their need for attention and creepy appearance, they should strongly consider adding one to their team.

Physiology

Both Mr. Mime and Mime Jr. have an undisputed psychic-typing. Both are usually regarded as fairies in Kalos and are often found in fairy courts. This makes their fairy-typing also relatively uncontroversial (beyond the debate as to whether there should be a fairy type at all).

Mime Jr. generally have short, stocky bodies. Their legs are very short and have no knees. The lower portion of their body is coated in blue fur (the exact shade varies by individual). Their upper body is covered in pink, purple or red fur. The one exception is their head, which is covered in long, thick, blue hair that tends to clump together and stick up. Mime Jr. like to seek out a pearl, bead, or other round object to put on top of their hair. They try to keep the object balanced and will cry if it falls off.

Mime Jr. have long, thin arms. They also have two small red growths on their body, one on their navel and one on their nose. Neither Mime Jr. nor Mr. Mime has ears. They do have eyes and a mouth, but no vocal cords or lungs. Mr. Mime never have any apparent reproductive organs. They may have a heart, kidneys, liver, stomach, intestines, appendix, or gall bladder. They may also not have one, any or all of those organs. In any case, the heart does not beat and none of the other organs appear to function.

Mr. Mime has a disc-like torso covered in white fur. They have the same red outgrowths as Mime Jr., but much larger and located at the base of their limbs, their navel and on their cheeks. They have four small red growths on the ends of their fingers. Mr. Mime has the same red fur as Mime Jr. on their face. They lose their visible nose but retain a nasal slit. Mr. Mime also lose their eyelids. Instead of one long clump of hair, Mr. Mime usually have two jutting out from either side of their head. They usually outgrow their habit of balancing objects by this point. All of Mr. Mime's limbs are long, thin, and coated in a thin layer of white hairs. Adult Mr. Mime have four joints on each limb and are double jointed on all four. At the end of their legs, Mr. Mime have long feet that curl up at the end. They are usually the same color as their juvenile blue fur, except they are hard structures made of keratin. Mr. Mime have long, broad hands. Their fingers are double-jointed and have more joints than the average human hand.

A fully-grown Mr. Mime usually has a mass of about fifty kilograms. Fully extended, they can reach heights of 1.5 meters. The lifespan of Mr. Mime in the wild and in captivity closely tracks the average human lifespan in the area.

Behavior

Rather than normal food, Mr. Mime and Mime Jr. appear to feed off of human attention and fascination. They prefer to live near large human settlements and will often venture into cities to give performances on street corners or in public parks. Mr. Mime used in arenas or other places with many people being entertained (see Battling) usually have brighter fur and more energy than the average Mr. Mime. When they are not performing, Mr. Mime find a secluded area and sit down, fold their limbs to appear small as possible, and stop moving. During their resting state they remain smiling with their eyes wide open.

Mr. Mime hate interacting with other Mr. Mime. They only seek each other out to mate and they abandon their mate and child immediately after reproduction occurs (see Breeding). The one exception is that Mr. Mime held in fairly large numbers in very active public places will sometimes tolerate each other, but they will not interact unless ordered to do so and they will constantly try to upstage the rest of their circus.

Mime Jr. will usually seek out surrogate parents. These can be humans, other true psychics (or alakazam), fey courts, or individual fairy or bipedal pokémon. They are very nervous when they are not being watched over by their surrogate parent. When they feel safe, Mime Jr. are very playful and will constantly play games with themselves or attempt to perform for someone else. They are perfectionists and will often break down in tears at the slightest mistake, even though they are not yet very skilled at mimicry or even graceful movement.

Mr. Mime never speak, even telepathically. However, even without ears they can understand spoken commands. They cannot understand music and recorded voices. Mr. Mime ordinarily use telepathy to read the nervous systems of similarly structured creatures. This allows them to perfectly mimic the movements of humans. Less well known is their ability to project their own movements onto humans and other bipeds. This is usually only possible after a psychic link is established through mimicry. Mr. Mime never cause the being they are controlling to speak or write.

Husbandry

The species is generally safe around humans. There are three broad exceptions. Mime Jr. or Mr. Mime in a fey court are every bit as dangerous as every other member of a fey court. They will lash out violently if their performance is interrupted or mocked. Finally, sometimes Mr. Mime become too attached to one individual and become addicted to their attention. If this attention is ever withdrawn, the pokémon may kidnap the target of their affection and, if necessary, keep their body controlled and performing gestures of affection forever. Trainers of Mr. Mime are strongly urged to keep another pokémon as well to prevent this from happening. Bringing other humans in to watch the Mr. Mime or having multiple family members give the pokémon roughly equal amounts of attention are also advised.

So long as these warnings are followed, Mr. Mime are excellent partner pokémon. They do not require food. They can sleep up to sixteen hours a day. They are also fascinated enough with humans that they can sometimes be convinced to do routine "human" tasks such as sweeping, mopping or cleaning dishes. If a Mr. Mime does not want to do these things, they should never be forced to do them.

The main drawback of keeping Mr. Mime is their need for attention. They will expect their trainer to spend several hours with them a day, either venting to the Mr. Mime (they are very good listeners), watching a performance, or allowing the Mr. Mime to mimic their trainer's movements while in public or doing a complex task. On rare occasions, they may take over their trainer's body for an hour or so.

Mime Jr. are even more demanding, in their own way. They are typically content to just watch what their trainer does and try to imitate it, but they will sometimes want to perform. Both present problems. Mime Jr. will inevitably make mistakes in their spontaneous imitations and performances, causing them great emotional distress. Their trainer will then need to drop whatever they were doing and console their Mime Jr. It is speculated that they even make mistakes on purpose from time to time to get attention. They are also less used to linking their nervous systems than Mr. Mime are; this can sometimes result in involuntary twitches or inexplicable sensations in nearby humans. Sometimes weirder results, such as full body or perception swaps, can happen.

Mr. Mime should be given a secluded place to sleep in, ideally one where other humans rarely enter. Mime Jr. should be allowed to sleep in their trainer's bed (they are more than tough enough to survive a human rolling onto them and they can't choke on blankets because they don't breathe). Their pokéballs should be used very sparingly, ideally only when the pokémon is injured or right before major formal matches.

Illness

When a Mr. Mime receives insufficient attention, they may become withdrawn, lethargic and bitter. This, ironically, results in the pokémon receiving less attention than they were before. Taking a day and doing nothing but playing with a Mr. Mime can usually reverse this.

The vast majority of trainers will experience only temporary maladies from Mime Jr. attempting nervous systems links. The more serious cases tend to be spotted fairly quickly. Some powerful human or pokémon psychics (or legendary pokémon, such as the relatively friendly Tapu Lele and Tapu Koko) can resolve these problems without permanent side effects.

Evolution

When a Mime Jr. has enough confidence in their own mimicry abilities, they will evolve. They are not gradual or flash evolvers; they are in a rare third category that simply disappears and reappears a moment later in their adult form. This process is literally faster than blinking. There is no bright flash of light. Evolution simply happens. Curiously, the new Mr. Mime will almost never acknowledge that they were ever a juvenile and will immediately begin acting as if everything is normal.

Evolution cannot be accelerated by battling, but can be hastened by the Mime Jr.'s surrogate parents spending more time with them. Trainers who want to evolve their Mime Jr. quickly should play with their pokémon whenever possible and never stray more than a few meters away.

Battling

Mr. Mime are seen on almost every professional battlefield—on the sidelines. A rhydon cannot go all out with a seismic attack without leveling all but the sturdiest of structures around them. A missed hydreigon draco meteor could easily kill several spectators. Arguably, high level professional battling is only possible because of Mr. Mime. The pokémon put on a show at the start of most professional matches (although this part is usually omitted from telecasts). This gives the pokémon a boost in power and confidence that allows them to form shields around the battlefield. These barriers keep attacks, field effects and pokémon inside of the arena while still allowing all but the harshest of lights and sounds to pass through.

Mr. Mime form these shields in one of two ways. The more powerful is belief. If someone nearby believes that their walls are real, they spontaneously become real. These walls persist until physically broken, the belief falters, or the last believer leaves the area. Mr. Mime can also create temporary barriers by using small vibrations of their fingertips to still molecules in front of them. They can create a feedback loop where the temporary barrier visibly holds, convincing bystanders that it is real. This, in turn, causes the barrier to become far stronger, which fosters more belief in the power of the barrier, which causes the barrier to become stronger, and so on. This makes Mr. Mime shields uniquely powerful in large stadiums where powerful attacks routinely hit their shields without breaking them.

There is some debate as to whether trainers themselves should not be allowed to use Mr. Mime in stadium matches, or whether stadium capacity should be limited for professional battles where one side has a Mr. Mime. It has been repeatedly shown that trainer's Mr. Mime are less powerful in isolated matches, such as remotely telecast matches fought on top of Mt. Silver or on desert islands. Mr. Mime on the battlefield do not appear to become any more powerful when other Mr. Mime are creating the barriers, as opposed to salahewa or claydol. This is not surprising given Mr. Mime's antipathy towards others of their species.

In 2006, at the peak of baton pass teams' popularity, eleven of the top one-hundred trainers used a Mr. Mime on their main team. Changes in the rules to punish the playstyle has decreased Mr. Mime's prominence, but they are still among the top thirty most used pokémon in major tournaments.

Every baton pass team, and a fair few bulky and hyper offense teams, have a Mr. Mime at their core. The pokémon can temporarily distract an opponent through disable, encore, taunt or torment. Then they start to set up the shields. Only the very strongest of opponents, or those with unique shield-breaking abilities, can get around the barriers in less than one minute. In the meantime, Mr. Mime meditate through nasty plot or calm mind. They periodically fortify the shields as needed and then resume boosting up. Once the switch timer runs out, they immediately baton pass to either another link in the baton pass chain or to an offensive pokémon. A hydreigon with fifteen minutes of nasty plot boosting and Mr. Mime shields behind it (and maybe other boosts from the rest of the chain) can sweep most full, healthy teams before the switch clock runs.

Most baton pass counters, such as merciless offense, toxic, perish song, and taunt, do not work on Mr. Mime because of their shields, bizarre biology, or deafness. Instead, their weakness is their relative lack of offensive presence. Some trainers will let Mr. Mime do whatever it wants behind the barrier. In the meantime, they have their own pokémon set up. This can take the form of stat boosting or arena control. The above hydreigon can theoretically sweep a team in fifteen minutes, but if they immediately come into face an opponent with several minutes of amnesia, swords dance or calm mind boosting, hail, and the backing of a tailwind or trick room, things could quickly look ugly for that hydreigon.

Mr. Mime can use their own offensive abilities and shoot out attacks such as dazzling gleam or charge beam through the barrier. But even with several minutes of boosting (or baton pass boosts of their own), Mr. Mime are only powerful enough to match the average top tier offensive pokemon. And every second spent attacking is a second that Mr. Mime isn't boosting or fortifying their barriers. While they lack conventional weak points, Mr. Mime are still rather fragile and can't take many hits once their walls come down.

As such, Mr. Mime is increasingly viewed as an insurance policy: one way or another, the winner of the matchup right after Mr. Mime baton passes out is going to take the match. If a trainer has had a very bad match and is left with only Mr. Mime and a special attacker, they can effectively wipe out the rest of the match beforehand. This has led to some rumblings about banning baton pass altogether because it "takes the skill out of battling."

Island Challenge battles are not fought in front of sold out stadiums. Only the champion, the challenger and a referee are allowed in the throne room during title defense matches. The elite four chambers and the throne room are all guarded by technology derived from bronzong and partially fortified by ninetales, not Mr. Mime, to get around the lack of crowds. The Malie Gym uses Mr. Mime, and Alola Stadium (still under construction as of this volume's publication) will use Mr. Mime.

The lack of attention does diminish Mr. Mime's effectiveness, but in turn only the Kahunas, elite four and champion have pokémon that can dish out professional tier attacks. Champion Luna is the only _Battler_ ranked trainer based in Alola. This means that Mr. Mime can still make shields that hold off most opponents for at least a minute, even with relatively few spectators. After evolution or capture, Mr. Mime should be taught a few offensive attacks such as charge beam and dazzling gleam. Then training should focus on boosting moves. A Mr. Mime can do very well for themselves up until the elite four without knowing baton pass. The default strategy for using Mr. Mime in casual battle is to disrupt the opponent, set up shields, boost for a minute or so, and then start firing out attacks. Opponents who take the time to counter-boost can be troublesome, as Mr. Mime's shields do not scale up with their boosting and the species has no good way to boost their defenses outside of their barriers.

Mime Jr. should only be battled with in very controlled settings against weak opponents. They strongly prefer friendly play to battle and losses can upset their self-confidence for days or even weeks.

Acquisition

Mime Jr. and Mr. Mime can be captured, adopted, or purchased with a Class III license.

They are most commonly found in the suburbs of Hau'oli, although they sometimes venture into more rural areas or into the heart of the city. Mr. Mime are most often seen while performing. These performances should never be disrupted, as the Mr. Mime will fly into a rage and, if captured, never trust their trainer. Mr. Mime are creative, vindictive, and have psychic powers; angering one and then keeping it close is folly of the highest degree.

Mr. Mime are best captured by simply approaching one moving between locations or sitting down next to a resting Mr. Mime. Showing the pokémon a pokéball and watching a full performance (with suitably vigorous applause at the end) will usually gain the pokémon's trust and they will allow themselves to be captured. They feed off of attention and are entirely willing to be trained by humans if it means a constant source of food.

Mime Jr. are somewhat trickier to capture. A Mime Jr. that has not found a surrogate parent after a week or two will usually cry very loudly until either a predator or potential parent approaches. Walking around the woods north of Hau'oli or the suburbs of the city and listening for tears is as good a way to find one as any. Mime Jr. will be very friendly to potential surrogate parents and will make no effort whatsoever to resist capture. If a Mime Jr. already has parents or shows disinterest in capture, it is best to leave the pokémon alone to avoid angering their parents.

Breeding

Mr. Mime do not need physical contact to breed. In fact, a pair have successfully mated through a video link while being physically over 100 kilometers apart. When two Mr. Mime see each other, one will spontaneously begin performing while the other watches. The other will reply with a performance of their own. If both are reasonably impressed with the other, they will begin a synchronized routine that lasts for one to two hours. Then both will stand motionless for several minutes until a Mime Jr. spontaneously appears next to one of them. Both parents will then immediately ignore the child and each other. Mr. Mime can mate several times throughout their lives, but they will never mate with (or even acknowledge) a past partner again.

Subspecies

N/A


	27. Arbok

**Arbok (Ekans)**

Introduction

Before 1955, arbok was mostly notable as the link between the constrictors and the venomous snakes. The former group use their muscles and the element of surprise to wrap themselves around their prey and squeeze until their target dies of suffocation. The venomous snakes make a single strike and inject their prey with venom from their fangs. Then the snake slinks away and waits until their prey dies. Arbok is a constrictor, but they also have venom.

This venom is a paralytic that has psychoactive effects on most mammals, reptiles, and birds. They deliver this venom by spitting it through the air onto their targets face. Arbok can reliably hit a stationary target from twenty meters, and they can usually hit a moving target from five meters. Once the venom reaches its target, it starts to give off noxious fumes. When inhaled, the target's muscles begin to lock. This is not distressing. In fact, the venom has a strong calming effect. Mammals, birds and reptiles under the effect of arbok venom are perfectly aware of what is happening and can even feel pain; they just passively accept all of it.

In 1938, the surgeon general of the United States released a report on the long and short term effects of hypnosis on the human mind. Hypnosis had previously been the preferred method of anesthesia in most of the world's operating theaters. However, the surgeon general's report suggested that hypnosis, especially from hypno and ghost-types, could add or delete memories, impair future sleep or memory formation, and cause or exacerbate serious mental illnesses. Congress had banned it for medical purposes within one year.

However, there was no good alternative to take hypnosis' place. Faced with the option between painless surgery with potential psychological risks or painful, often lethal surgery without anesthesia, most patients who could afford to do so left the country for operations. Many who could not afford to travel died or were left severely traumatized. In 1941, after just twenty months, the ban on hypnotism was reversed.

In 1955, a monk from the Mount Otsukimi Monastery, was admitted to the newly formed NTT Hospital in Saffron. His particular sect did not allow priests to be hypnotized and the doctors advised him that he would almost certainly die without hypnosis. The monk recommended arbok venom be used, citing his experiences on the slopes of Mount Otsukimi watching arbok crush tranquil prey to death. The hospital consulted with the Sekichiki Dojo, the owners of the only captive arbok in Japan that had not been defanged. An arbok was brought to NTT for the surgery and, to the astonishment of all present save the monk himself, the surgery was successful and the patient woke up less than one day after the surgery's completion with no ill effects. Arbok venom is now the standard anesthesia method across the world.

People under the effect of arbok venom also retain their memories, albeit rendered less traumatic than they otherwise would be. This makes the criminal applications of arbok venom rather limited. Theoretically arbok venom can be used to paralyze a target in order to murder them, but there are far more efficient ways to kill someone with a pokémon. Studies on the addictiveness of arbok venom have shown mixed results. The current consensus is that if arbok venom is addictive at all, then it is only psychologically addictive and does not cause chemical dependence. Nevertheless, arbok venom was included in the 1971 Prevention of Pokémon Drug Abuse Act and most subsequent legislation on the topic. It is currently illegal to transport arbok or ekans across regional or national borders with intent to breed the pokémon. It is also illegal to keep the pokémon there for over thirty days. Violation of the act carries a forty year mandatory minimum sentence.

In 1975, Alola found itself facing a shortage of arbok. No arbok had ever given birth to live babies in Alola and importation of more was impossible. In a last ditch effort to avoid returning to hypno within a decade, the regional government released twenty arbok into the wild on Route 2 to see if they would breed.

They did.

There are now nearly 1300 ekans and roughly 80 wild arbok on Melemele. The federal government has even granted a partial exception to the importation ban to keep the wild population genetically diverse. In 2017, the regional government began to allow trainers on the island challenge to capture ekans.

Physiology

Ekans and arbok are classified as pure poison-types. The ruling is not disputed.

Ekans are long, thin snakes. Their backs are usually purple, but can also be green, pink, red, grey or gold. Their bellies are almost always a light yellow color. They have large yellow eyes, but they primarily sense the world through smell. Ekans and arbok often flick their tongues out to get a sense of the heat signatures and scents in their surroundings. Ekans and arbok are entirely colorblind. Both stages have nostrils. While they cannot smell with them, the nostrils are useful for breathing while they eat.

Young ekans have no venom or poison abilities whatsoever. Older ekans gain some ability to use poison-elemental attacks, but they do not have natural venom. They do have powerful muscles that let them crush anything they are fast enough to wrap themselves around. Additionally, their jaw is detachable to allow them to eat meals larger than they are. Ekans have a rattle at the tip of their tail. This can be shaken to create a sound that has been described as a breathy scream.

Arbok lose their rattle. In exchange, they gain a large hood directly beneath their head. This hood is usually not expanded and just appears as a slight bulge at the top of their body. When expanded, it displays a distorted face. The exact pattern varies (see Subspecies). It was previously believed that this pattern terrified opponents into freezing up, allowing arbok to safely constrict and eat them. It is now believed that this hood allows them to momentarily stun prey so that they can be more reliably poisoned. It is also useful for making the arbok look bigger than it is and scaring off potential predators.

Arbok are not particularly large snakes; they are less than half the length and less than one third the weight of the largest constrictors. However, they are the strongest non-draconic constrictors on record. Arbok have been observed crushing oil drums and snapping trees and bones.

Arbok can grow up to 3.5 meters in length and 65 kilograms in mass in their native range. In tropical environments they tend to grow up to 4 meters and 70 kilograms. They can live up to 17 years in the wild and 36 in captivity.

Behavior

On Honshu, ekans almost exclusively eat eggs. They are adept climbers and are generally shorter than the grasses in the rugged savannas they inhabit. This allows them to stealthily reach both grounded and arboreal nests and eat the contents. In Alola, ekans have run up against a slight problem. The most common bird pokémon is toucannon. Even if an ekans got into a nest, it would be no match for the mother toucannon inside. Pelipper, the next most common bird, fiercely protect their eggs.

There are a plethora of birds that nest on the eastern side of Melemele. There is also very sparse grass cover, forcing ekans to be exposed if they want to enter the area. In addition to being their most common source of food, large birds are ekans' most common predators. The risk of exposing themselves to an army of mandibuzz, braviary and fearow does not make up for the risk of entering the eastern cliffs.

As such, ekans are confined to the western edge of Melemele. Their main targets here are honchkrow, delibird, golduck, fearow, and oricorio eggs. This predation has led to the near-extripation of oricorio from Route 2, as well as the decline of the local honchkrow , fearow, delibird and golduck populations. The latter four are invasive, and this decline is arguably a benefit for the ecosystem. The oricorio decline has been treated as an acceptable casualty. Melemele Meadow is routinely monitored for ekans; if any are found there, they will be removed to protect the oricorio population.

Between the breeding seasons of their prey, ekans will target small pokémon. In practice, this is usually rattata. Ekans prefer to stay hidden deep in thick grass and wait for something to pass by them. They will also hide in trees and drop down on something that passes beneath them.

Arbok have no common predators of Route 2 and suburban Hau'oli. Even arcanine are unwilling to pick fights with them. Arbok spend most of their time basking in well-lit areas. They seldom fully sleep, instead keeping themselves alert enough to be able to respond to threats. Arbok have no eyelids, making it difficult to tell if one is asleep or not. A wild basking arbok should be left alone. They are not dangerous unless disturbed.

Arbok prefer to lurk at the edge of tall grass patches, although they can hunt down prey if their ambush is unsuccessful. When something passes by them outside of the grass, they will rise up and hiss. Arbok hisses sound like a mix of metal scraping against metal, a screaming infant, and a roaring flame. They are loud and scary enough that most creatures will reflexively look towards them, be frightened by the hood into a second of stunned stillness, and then get a blast of venom to the eyes or nose. When the prey is poisoned, arbok will slither over and crush it until death occurs. Then they will dislocate their jaw and eat it whole.

Arbok's main prey are raticate, and they will sometimes go well out of their way to hunt one. Arbok are diurnal and will approach a nest during the day, while the raticate and most rattata are asleep. They will hiss to wake up the raticate, poison it, and then either scare the remaining rattata away or kill them and leave the bodies for ekans or other scavengers.

In addition to raticate, arbok often eat delibird, golduck, smeargle, growlithe (but not arcanine), and lopunny. They will sometimes deliberately kill pikachu, pichu and raichu to bait a hodad into attacking them. When the hodad approaches, they will get a shot of venom between the eyes before they can locate and attack the arbok. Given the type disadvantage, this is often a bad strategy. But some arbok seem to almost exclusively hunt hodad. These are usually removed from the wild to avoid straining the hodad population.

Outside of their venom, arbok are most notable for their hibernation. The species never ventures far from caves in either their native range or in Alola. Even though they are generally territorial, during the winter arbok and ekans will all swarm together and descend into a nearby cave. They will huddle together for warmth and create a pile of hundreds of snakes. They seek out caves because they tend to stay warmer than the outside air during the winter. However, the caves are still not particularly warm. Arbok go into brumation in the winter, where their metabolism sharply drops. Arbok and ekans can go the entire winter without hunting, although they will sometimes prey on a cave pokémon unfortunate or reckless enough to approach the den.

In Alola, some arbok brumate during the wet season (see Reproduction). Almost no ekans do. Even at the coldest point in the year, the surface is still warmer than the world beneath it.

Husbandry

Recreational use of arbok venom is strongly discouraged. While not chemically addictive, it can cause psychological dependency. It can cause fatal allergic reactions in some people. Even if it is not instantaneously lethal, someone under the effects of arbok venom will be unable to help themselves if danger appears. Some people have mild allergic reactions to arbok venom causing them to vomit; if they cannot move their head, this can cause suffocation.

Ekans will require at least twenty hours of basking time a week, either in natural sunlight or under a heat lamp. If basking outside, they should be provided some protection from predatory birds. Arbok require thirty to fifty hours of basking time but seldom need to be protected. Ekans should be provided with enrichment in the form of climbing structures. Arbok will not use them. Both will play with pipe systems, although it is difficult to construct one large and sturdy enough for an arbok.

Ekans can be housebroken rather easily. Arbok will generally refuse to learn if they are not already housebroken.

Ekans and arbok are rather tolerant of pokéballs so long as they are sometimes allowed to train, explore and bask. They prefer balls designed for ectotherms and these roughly halve the required basking time. They can tolerate almost every pokéball.

Ekans should be fed primarily a diet of eggs. One large egg a day is generally enough for a small ekans, although larger ekans may begin to eat more. Neither ekans nor arbok will eat when they are not hungry, which makes putting more eggs than necessary in an ekans living quarters a good strategy. This can also be used for enrichment as the ekans has to sniff out and find the eggs.

Almost all carnivorous pokémon will eat dry food, or at least ground meat. This allows trainers some disconnect between the food and its components. Arbok and large ekans will only eat their prey whole. It should be recently dead or thawed out. Some general pokémon supply stores and almost all reptile specialty stores will sell frozen or freshly killed food. Trainers who are not comfortable feeding a dead creature, and often a dead pokémon, to their arbok should not train the species.

Arbok can eat rattata and raticate, yungoos and gumshoos, most small- to mid-size birds, small fish, golbat, and some larger insects. They strongly prefer eating pokémon to ordinary animals, and should be fed a dead pokémon at least once a month. Arbok should be offered food one week after small meals, ten days after medium-sized meals, and two weeks after large ones. If they are hungry and go too long without food, arbok will kill and consume small pokémon around them, including teammates, pets, and endangered species.

If they are captured as an ekans, arbok are generally harmless to humans. They will often wrap around their trainer as a sign of affection, but they will not squeeze tightly enough to kill. The very few cases where an arbok in captivity before evolution went on to kill their trainer were generally in cases of severe neglect or abuse. Arbok and ekans can even be trusted around children, although this is generally not recommended. Kids tend to either be traumatized by arbok or harass them while they bask.

If an arbok rears up at you, it is best to slowly sit down, look away from them, and speak in soft tones. If they do not spit venom immediately, they are simply showing that they are irritated or threatened. They may also be sick (see Illness).

Illness

Snake illnesses tend to require professional care to treat. The most common symptoms are random displays of aggression and a refusal to eat. These could signal anything from a minor infection to a life-threatening illness. The pokémon should be kept in their ball and taken to a veterinarian as soon as possible in these cases.

The most common disease in arbok is blister disease. This manifests as a series of blisters, warts, or sores on the belly of the snake. It is recommended that trainers examine their pokémon's belly every few days to make sure that this is caught early. Ekans are often very hesitant to have their belly scratched at first, but will quickly warm to it and even turn over to encourage their trainers to pet them. Arbok and ekans should be stroked towards the tail. If an arbok has not yet been trained to accept scratches, it is best to have a professional handle the process. The disease is caused by excess moisture in the environment, something that often happens when a snake native to temperate scrubland is introduced to a tropical region.

Another common symptom is mouth rot. This manifests as bleeding gums, open sores in the mouth, and white pus. Ekans are always reluctant to have their teeth checked, but trainers should always be watching for signs.

Annual checkups are also useful for catching parasites, slight internal damage, developmental problems, and endocrine disorders.

Arbok are necessary for most modern operations and the restrictions on importation have led veterinarians to try and find every possible way to keep one alive. Almost all illnesses can be cured if caught early enough. The one exception is inclusive body disease. The affected snake will be immediately euthanized. This has made many trainers unwilling to bring a snake showing signs of IBD in to be treated. This is selfish on two fronts: death from IBD is inevitable and painful, and the arbok might infect the wild and domestic populations the Alolan healthcare system depends on.

Evolution

Around the time they reach two meters in length, ekans begin to develop flaps of skin behind their head. These eventually grow into a full hood, with colorful scales growing in to form the facial markings. Their venom sacs mature around the same time. The formal demarcation line between ekans and arbok is the rattle falling off, temporarily leaving the new arbok with a stump tail before the tip grows back.

Evolution usually occurs around twenty-four months of age in Honshu. Wild Ekans evolve around the sixteen month mark in Alola due to abundant prey year round and the lack of a hibernation period. Captive ekans can evolve marginally sooner than wild ekans, but this is a matter of six weeks at most.

Battling

Arbok are not often used on the competitive circuits. They are physically powerful and have a useful ability to disable opponents. However, they have some serious drawbacks. Like most poison-types, they respond poorly to earth and psychic elemental attacks. Psychic types are abundant on the competitive scene, and earthquake is a widespread attack among physical powerhouses. Arbok simply does not have the bulk to tank many of these hits.

Arbok venom can theoretically disable an opponent in one shot, but there are some drawbacks here as well. Generally, arbok only carry enough venom to disable something the size of a tauros. This allows them to shut down many smaller Pokémon. In theory. The venom is nearly useless against mineral and phantom pokémon, and some organics with bizarre biology don't experience any effects at all. Pokémon with very simple or extremely complex nervous systems can also resist the psychoactive effects, allowing some elemental attacks to be launched even as the pokémon remains paralyzed.

Many of the smaller pokémon arbok could theoretically disable are psychic-types with some sort of a barrier move to block the hit. In the wild, arbok rely on catching their opponent off guard. This is not an advantage they have on the battlefield. The remaining small pokémon that see use are either too fast to hit (e.g. ninjask) or have tricks to block or mitigate the venom (e.g. smeargle).

In practice, arbok's use is limited to countering a small number of pokémon, or physically overpowering any pokémon without psychic or ground attacks that's slower than arbok. Only one trainer in the top 100 uses one on their main team. That trainer, Elena Chirlov, is a dragon and reptile specialist who wanted a counter to most common fairy-types such as clefable, sylveon and florges.

By contrast, arbok is very good on the island challenge. Seismic attacks are uncommon outside of stadium battles, and ground-types are quite rare in the South Pacific metagame. Most pokémon that the average trainer uses are small enough to succumb to arbok venom and most casual trainers will not have a premade strategy for dealing with the snake. The only issue is training an arbok to crush something to injury, but not to death. This may require professional assistance.

Ekans can struggle before they evolve. Their poison attacks are not particularly potent, they are not particularly strong or fast, and as ambush predators they have few instincts to guide them in a one-on-one fight in the open. The best strategy is usually to poison the opponent with toxic or a similar move and then coil tightly and lash out when anything gets too close. This strategy is shut down by anything with a neutral ranged attack and more speed than the ekans.

Acquisition

Ekans can be captured or adopted with a Class II license. Arbok capture is prohibited but they may be adopted with a Class III license. Purchase of arbok and ekans is prohibited under federal law. Capture of arbok is prohibited by the regional government to ensure that breeding adults stay in the wild.

Ekans may be found all over Route 2, but particularly the tall grass savannas near the coast. They can also be found in the forests north of Hau'oli, although many of these areas are nature preserves with restricted entry and tightly regulated capture.

Breeding

Female arbok attempt to eat as much as possible in the months before the wet season. If they eat enough, they will be willing to reproduce. These females will slither to the high water mark of cool, but not cold, caves. This describes the Melemele caves that are not either actively volcanic or in the Seaward Cave complex. The depths of Verdant Cavern, beyond the trial site, are closed off in the wet season because of the number of arbok there.

In Alola, the females will refuse entry to most males. They will either fight the males themselves or force them to fight each other. A handful of winners are allowed to stay; the rest must leave the cave and either hibernate elsewhere or not go into brumation at all. In their native range, all arbok go into brumation, although only a handful of females are receptive to mating and they will ward off any male they see as an unworthy partner.

If a female accepts a male, they mate. One female may mate with multiple males in the week before brumation begins. Once all mating occurs, all snakes tangle together into one large pile. The females undergo a five-month pregnancy during brumation. They give live birth to three to five ekans upon emergence. Mothers will monitor their children for one to two weeks and then abandon them.

In captivity, it is essential for breeding that females (and males) be given extra training and food in the months leading up to brumation. They should also have access to a secluded area kept between 10 and 16 degrees C and big enough for multiple arbok to rest comfortably in. The arbok should be allowed to explore this area towards the start of the dry season, and then periodically return to check on it throughout the season. If the female decides she wants to reproduce, a powerful male who is already aware of the brumation chamber should also be introduced to it.

Arbok will sometimes mate with other large snakes and will seldom kill or reject them from the chamber. However, the chances of mating, successful birth, and viable offspring all increase in arbok-arbok pairings. Even a well fed and powerful female may not decide to mate in a given year. This is not concerning. If she has never gone into brumation in the available chamber, then a larger one should be provided the next year.

Subspecies

There is some debate as to whether arbok with different colorations and hood markings should qualify as different species. But because they have the same general elemental wells, physiology, behaviors, and range, almost all scientific bodies have accepted that there are no subspecies of arbok. While arbok have a slight preference for mates with similar appearances, wild and captive arbok will pick a stronger mate with a different phenotype over a weaker one with the same.


	28. Dunsparce

**Dunsparce**

Introduction

The dragons hold special places in almost every culture. They are seen as messengers of the gods, or as gods in their own right. Even the cultures that do not worship them know the importance of approaching them with respect and fear. In general, dragons are split into three groups: the true dragons, the pseudodragons, and the elemental dragons. The latter category will be set aside for now.

Pseudodragons evolved from snake pokémon and the true dragons evolved from pseudodragons. The true dragons are mostly bipedal or quadrupedal and often have wings. The pseudodragons, milotic and gyarados, are sea serpents revered as gods of peace and war around the world.

Dunsparce is the third pseudodragon. They are not worshipped by any known culture.

Rather than being fearsome apex predators like most true dragons and gyarados, dunsparce are scavengers and herbivores. They are extremely timid and flee into the earth at the first sign of trouble. All of this has led dunsparce being mocked as the little dragon that couldn't.

But all hope is not lost for the smallest pseudodragon. Research on the few captive specimens has shown that they easily outlive milotic and gyarados. And a partial skeleton recently unearthed in the Andes has raised the possibility that we may know far less about the species than we think we do.

Physiology

Dunsparce are classified as pure normal types. They are not true dragons and do not wield draconic energy as well as the elemental dragons can. Despite their digging abilities, dunsparce are not terrakinetic. These limitations rule out dragon and ground typings, and there is no other typing that would fit them.

Dunsparce are relatively short, thick snakes. They are typically about 1.5 meters long and 0.3 meters wide. Most of their back is covered in yellow scales and their belly is lined with teal ones. The one exception to this rule is a patch of scales between their wings. This pattern, unique to each individual, is a mix of tan and teal scales.

Dunsparce have two short white wings with soft feathers. The species is not capable of flight, but they can hover for short periods. Their wings beat rapidly while they do this, but the flight itself is an elemental ability and not the product of mechanical force. Dunsparce have two very wide eyes with eyelids. However, these eyes are almost always shut. Sometimes a captive dunsparce will open them for a minute or so, but they will then close their eyes continuously for nearly a decade. No wild dunsparce has been observed with their eyes open.

At the end of a dunsparce's tail is a drill. They can spin this drill rapidly to create a limited twister attack that carves out a tunnel behind the pokémon. Dunsparce slither backwards faster than they slither forwards; it is believed that dunsparce always move backwards in their tunnels, and only move forwards in large caverns and on the surface.

Dunsparce have two large fangs. They are not venomous and do not hunt their prey. No dunsparce, captive or wild, has ever been seen using their fangs. Their purpose was entirely unclear until 2015; it is now suspected that the fangs are either vestigial or still developing (see Evolution).

Dunsparce typically have a mass around 40 kilograms. One captive dunsparce, Don Velez, was captured as an adult in 1467 and has shown no aging-related health problems. He has grown five centimeters in this time.

Behavior

Dunsparce are extremely timid. This makes observation of them in the wild difficult. When approached on the surface, they will immediately burrow back underground. When approached inside of caves, they will immediately burrow even further down. Pokémon and drones sent into their tunnels typically send the dunsparce into a full panic as they try to tunnel away as fast as possible, occasionally lobbing out attacks if they get outrun. If anything gets too close, they will go limp and play dead. They will stop playing dead and escape the first time an opportunity presents itself.

There are a few things that are known about wild dunsparce behavior. They frequent caves that are not flooded or part of an active volcano. In fact, they appear on every continent (including Antarctica) and have frequently shown up on Melemele and other volcanic islands. There is no record of the indigenous people bringing them to the island (why they would introduce them to Alola). Dunsparce were already established on Melemele when Europeans discovered it. This suggests that they can dig under or swim through the oceans if need be. Because dunsparce seem even more afraid of water than they are of people (see Husbandry), the former is far more likely.

Dunsparce often share caverns with all subspecies of dugtrio. They appear to tolerate the presence of dugtrio and diglett in the wild. The only high quality study of wild dunsparce was done by attaching cameras to dugtrio and having them check in every few days on any dunsparce they found. It appeared as if most dunsparce stay perfectly still for months at a time.

The study did manage to film a dunsparce eating. A cave fish killed a small crab in a nearby stream and the dunsparce slithered over, created a high-pitched grinding sound with their drill to scare the fish away, and then ate the crab. Captive dunsparce have never killed and eaten live prey. Between the two data points, it appears as if dunsparce are primarily scavengers. Captive specimens are fond of root vegetables and the roots of many grasses and shrubs. This suggests that part of dunsparce's trips to the surface may be partially to eat plant material.

Dunsparce are usually sighted on the surface after very heavy rains. Presumably, they surface primarily to escape their flooding tunnels. Some dunsparce are also seen surfacing in the winter in areas where arbok live. They could be avoiding the den of much larger snakes that is temporarily occupying their home. While on the surface, dunsparce prefer to hide in thick grasses, piles of boulders, or other places that provide them with cover.

Husbandry

Dunsparce are probably the most difficult species to capture and train in this entire guide, legends excluded but ultra beasts very much included. While the process is far safer than trying to tame a vanilluxe, volcarona or metagross, it makes up for the relative safety through the sheer time, inconvenience and frustration involved.

Capturing a dunsparce is no easy task (see Acquisition). After a trainer manages to capture one, they then face the problem that whenever they are let out of their pokéball, dunsparce will attempt to burrow into the ground and escape. They will do this even if held in love, luxury, or friend balls.

To avoid this, the trainer must immediately go onto a boat and release the dunsparce. The pseudodragon will burrow through the boat, hit water, panic, and stop digging. If the boat can take on water and not sink, then the trainer can stay inside of it. If not, the trainer should pick up the dunsparce (the pokémon will struggle and they are deceptively strong; many trainers break a rib at this step), get onto a ride pokémon, and then get onto another boat.

The dunsparce will not attempt to burrow deeper so long as they can see and smell the ocean and feel the rocking of the waves. Now, the trainer can acclimate their pokémon to humans. The dunsparce must be left out of their ball for the entire process, ideally with a small, shaded and enclosed box or cavity they can retreat into. Their trainer must stay with them the entire time to slowly get the dunsparce to accept that humans are not a threat. Then, the trainer should feed the dunsparce at least ten times.

This may sound easy. But, there is a catch. Dunsparce eat at most once a month. Their trainer will need to stay with them on a boat for up to a year. The trainer can leave the boat to take a break, but it is recommended that breaks be kept to one hour a week. The dunsparce will also need to be acclimated to all of the pokémon species they will interact with on the team, many of whom are more intimidating than humans. It is also difficult to acclimate a dunsparce to a steelix while on a boat. Or to convince any ground-types to stay on a boat away from solid earth out of their pokéball at all times for a year.

Togekiss and blissey are among the best possible teammates for dunsparce as they have calming auras and eggs, respectively. They can halve the time it takes for a dunsparce to bond with a human, reduce the risk of flight, and all but eliminate stress-based diseases (see Illness).

If the dunsparce is not acclimated to humans and used to taking meals from them by the time they are allowed onto solid land, they will immediately try to escape and render the whole process fruitless.

Captive dunsparce should be fed roughly once a month. The recommended diet is a mix of fresh crustaceans, dog biscuits, wet cat food, fish, and root vegetables. They will not have the appetite to eat more than three standard servings of food at a given feeding. Dunsparce do not like to battle and will often burrow if spooked, although they sometimes will come back to a longtime trainer when they think the coast is clear. If a dunsparce is battled with, they should be fed once every two weeks. They should be provided with a stationary water dish in an easy to access place.

Dunsparce urinate roughly once a week and defecate twice a month. They cannot technically be housebroken, but they move so little that if they are set on a plastic sheet or in a pool, they will probably just relieve themselves where they are at.

It is unclear if dunsparce sleep or how often they do. But they prefer to stay motionless unless they need to move for food, to obey a command from a trainer they are loyal to, or to get away from something that intimidates them. Some dunsparce will explore their surroundings, but this is a relative rarity. The favored enrichment item of dunsparce is a network of plastic, metal or glass tubes big enough for them to slither through. The Lumiose Museum of Natural History has a popular burrowing species exhibit where the pokémon can move through a series of glass tunnels, concrete caverns and enclosed piles of dirt and rocks that spans nearly the entire museum. Their dunsparce, Lucille and Royal, are the most active captive specimens in the world.

The species is not affectionate. They will accept petting from trusted humans, but they will never initiate it or show much reaction at all.

Most dunsparce kept today are not pets, but are research or museum specimens. The others are the pokémon of long-dead sailors who thought that a months long transoceanic voyage in a massive ship was as good a chance as any to train a dunsparce. Even in the 1400s, having a tame dunsparce was seen as a monumental accomplishment in the nascent world of pokémon trainers. By 1700 the impossible had already been done a dozen times over and most of Europe's naval academies had at least one donated dunsparce in their collection. Dunsparce weren't captured again until the late 1800s, when it was theorized that they might be the link between the snakes, pseudodragons, and true dragons.

Illness

Sometimes dunsparce will hover in the air for no apparent reason. This will often be accompanied by a constant whirring of their drill. It is believed that this is a sign of stress, as they often stop when they are left entirely alone in the dark. Dunsparce will also rapidly shed scales when they experience prolonged stress. If they experience a serious illness or very acute stress, dunsparce will usually take care of it themselves by burrowing into the earth. One dunsparce died of stress when frequently used in battle for several months with while being held on a ship: this is the most recent reported accidental death of a captive dunsparce. That incident happened in 1550. Most of the world's 45 captive dunsparce have had century-long runs of perfect health.

Evolution

In 2011, a paleontologist working in the Andes Mountains unearthed a giant rib bone over three meters long. The rest of the partial skeleton he found included a two-meter-long fang and a five-meter-long drill. The ribs, fangs, and drill are very similar to those of a modern dunsparce.

The skeleton was only 12,000 years old.

Given the exceptional lifespan of dunsparce, their close relationship to two of the largest serpents in the world, and the sheer breadth of what we do not know about the species, it is very possible that this skeleton does not belong to an ancestor of the dunsparce, but instead belongs to an evolution. The modern surface dunsparce may all be juveniles that eventually grow into far larger snakes that live deep in the crust.

There is no known way to cause a dunsparce to evolve. Given that milotic and gyarados are flash evolvers that grow slightly as juveniles and then immediately become very large, it is reasonable to assume that dunsparce is as well.

Battling

Dunsparce have a strong aversion to battling. When threatened and unable to retreat, they rise above their opponent or try to scare them off with loud noises. Dunsparce can use some elemental attacks such as thunder wave, and even melee attacks such as bite and zen headbutt. They do not enjoy being tutored, but dunsparce can be trained to use TMs.

Only trainers willing to risk scaring off their dunsparce for good should attempt to battle with them.

Acquisition

Dunsparce can be captured with a Class V license. Dunsparce can also be purchased or adopted with a Class V license, but trainers should be warned that all but the tamest of dunsparce will attempt to flee from a new trainer.

The best way to find a dunsparce is to search the tallest, thickest grass of Route 2 after a particularly fearsome rainstorm. This is best done with thermal goggles or a tracking pokémon used to the scent of dunsparce. At this point, trainers have three options for attempting the capture:

They can throw a quick ball or ultra ball and hope they hit the target and successfully capture it on the first try.

They can use a trapper to block off escape. Chandelure, gothielle and mega gengar are among the most popular with professional hunters. Some telekinetics can also suspend the dunsparce in mid-air for a moment, and even guide the pokéball towards the target.

Use a faster pokémon to defeat dunsparce in battle. Dugtrio have the advantage of being able to outrun and outfight dunsparce even when they try to dig below the surface. Some variants of dugtrio can also try trapping dunsparce on the surface, but they are usually able to slip through the trap. Some birds can also swoop in and pick up a dunsparce in their talons. The snake can then be weakened with a few solid pecks.

The first strategy is entirely luck-based, the latter two require specialized teams. Between the trapper and a pokémon to ease the bonding process, many trainers need two rare and powerful pokémon to even be able to capture and raise a relatively weak, if interesting, new team member.

Breeding

Dunsparce have never been bred in captivity. It is unknown how they breed in the wild.

Subspecies

All dunsparce populations are remarkably similar in phenotype and genotype, despite their vast range.


	29. Arcanine

**Arcanine (Growlithe)**

Introduction

Arcanine may have been one of the first pokémon to be tamed. There are 30,000 year old cave paintings in Central Asia depicting human hunters fighting alongside an arcanine. The species' bones are often found near Paleolithic archeological sites in the region. Yet, arcanine were not common in captivity until the Industrial Revolution.

The Chinese Empire used tame arcanine as far back as 500 B.C.E. They were the mounts of the highest-ranking generals and imperial messengers, as well as the pets and guardians of the emperors themselves. All tame arcanine in the empire belonged to the emperor and were loaned out at their discretion. Occasionally a clan in Mongolia or the steppes would tame a pack of arcanine and use them in conquests, and in times of crisis the empire occasionally granted arcanine to other kingdoms in exchange for gold or military support, but for the most part the only tame arcanine were the property of the Chinese emperor.

Two developments around 1800 C.E. changed that. Growlithe ownership had previously been restricted by the species' unwillingness to leave their own pack to join humans. The pokéball made it easier to capture and tame individual growlithe. But it was large scale mining operations that made full domestication possible. Growlithe evolve very slowly in the wild. However, exposure to some elementally-charged stones can lead to their evolution occurring much earlier and faster with few long-term health consequences. When growlithe realized that humans had very large numbers of fire stones, entire packs began to approach human settlements and practically beg for capture. The massive influx of captive arcanine, the temporary weakening of China, and the rise of global trade networks led to the species quickly becoming commonplace guard dogs and pets throughout the world.

There are still feral growlithe packs and arcanine, but they tend to be made up of particularly rebellious spirits or those with bad experiences towards humans. Some are deliberately released by governments to give trainers on journeys a chance to capture a powerful and loyal friend. The Alolan pack is a mix of the two.

Physiology

Both arcanine and growlithe are classified as pure fire-types. Neither ruling is controversial.

Growlithe look like rather typical canines. Most of their body is coated in red fur with black stripes running through it. A growlithe's strip pattern is unique to them. Their bellies, tails, and the top of their head are coated in light brown fur.

Arcanine mostly resemble a very large growlithe. However, the brown tufts of fur expand to cover most of their face as well as the backside of their legs.

The species has one of the strongest senses of smell of any pokémon species, as well as an above average sense of hearing. They can track prey from two-week-old scent trails if there has not been any rain. These heightened senses compensate for their rather weak vision. Growlithe can see large shapes and some colors, but they are usually not able to identify small objects from sight alone.

Arcanine have no open flames at any point in their evolutionary line. This makes them more resistant to rain than other fire-types. They even enjoy swimming. The reason they are fire-types is that they have a series of flame sacs at the base of their neck and around their stomach and intestines. Their normal digestion process is slow and they have more capacity than most canines their size in their bowels. When needed, arcanine can radically increase the speed of digestion by physically burning all stored food. This reduces the amount of nutrients they can incorporate, but creates large amounts of flames and energy. With this boost, arcanine can run up to 500 kilometers an hour for 20 hours straight.

Arcanine typically reach a height of two meters at the withers and a mass of 1100 kilograms. They can live for 350 years in the wild and in captivity.

Behavior

Wild growlithe live in packs of ten to thirty individuals. They are fiercely territorial and will attack or kill any other canines, including other growlithe packs, that hunt inside of their territory. Growlithe packs will tolerate arcanine since the adults will sometimes share their kills with the pack. The packs are also strongly hierarchal. Each pack has a dominant male and a dominant female who demand submission from all other members of their sex. Not submitting, eating too much, or other violations of social etiquette will lead to exile. Other packs will not allow in another growlithe without the permission of both packs' dominant pair, or unless an arcanine insists upon it. In practice, exile is a death sentence for a growlithe.

The species displays aggression through growls and barks. They communicate within the pack through whistles, yapping, whines, and sneezes. Because of their poor sight, growlithe do not have the elaborate body language that many other social canines do.

Growlithe hunt by having three to five growlithe chase down their prey at a time. If they get tired, another team of growlithe will take over for them and continue the chase. Whenever their prey slows down too much, the nearest growlithe will tear into them with a fire fang. These tactics allow them to outlast anything that can't fly (and even some things that can). It does not work on anything that growlithe cannot convince to run. This strategy is well adapted to the speed-oriented ecosystem of the plains and deserts of Central Asia. Despite the hierarchal nature of the pack, kills are shared equally among all members, including the young, injured, and sick who cannot hunt.

Arcanine tend to be solitary in the wild outside of mating and childrearing (see Breeding). They hunt by chasing down prey and finishing them off with one or two bites, but they can also get into a direct fight and win against almost everything in their home range. This is riskier than simply intimidating something until it runs so it is not the preferred strategy.

When they are not hunting, arcanine and growlithe tend to lie around doing nothing. They usually live near an oasis, lake or river inside of their territory. This gives them a reliable source of water and draws prey to them. If prey does not come to them, the species' sense of smell is acute enough that they can track prey down themselves. In times where food is abundant (as it always is in Alola), growlithe and arcanine are far more playful and will patrol their territory, pick fights with local pokémon, investigate natural and man-made structures, and go swimming. They are usually not dangerous to humans unless provoked.

Growlithe packs sleep together in a heap at night. They do not leave a sentry awake. Growlithe have virtually no natural predators in their home territory, as even flygon prefer to not risk angering any arcanine in the area.

Husbandry

Growlithe and arcanine can survive on as little as 0.5% of their body weight a day in meat. They can eat up to 5% a day and they will be more active and more powerful for it. They can digest plants and most types of dog food, but they strongly prefer raw or cooked meat. Growlithe drink as much if not more water than other common canines. Many new growlithe owners make the mistake of assuming their fire-type will not need to drink water.

Because they live in strict hierarchies in the wild, growlithe can adjust quickly to captivity. They should submit fully to their trainer within a few days of capture or adoption. The process is faster and more absolute if the trainer is the same sex as them. Because growlithe operate on scent, transgender people who are on hormone replacement therapy will be read as their identified gender.

In the wild, rule-breaking can mean exile and a slow death from thirst or starvation. This makes growlithe very sensitive to the obedience of social norms (or at least, what they understand human social norms to be). They will typically refuse to work for or even outright attack trainers who harm or steal from other humans. The species can even be upset by the idea of battling for money, as they see it as akin to attacking another human and taking their food. Cash exchanges are best done away from growlithe.

Growlithe are perfectly fine being inside of pokéballs during the day. Well-fed growlithe will still want to explore and play with their trainer around dawn and dusk. Growlithe will lose respect for their trainer if they are not allowed to sleep in their trainer's bed at night in an imitation of their usual sleeping habits in the wild. They prefer to sleep with all other team members as well, but will sometimes make an exception for nocturnal pokémon, pokémon that do not sleep, or for pokémon that this is obviously impractical for.

Wild growlithe share a community latrine. This makes them exceptionally easy to housebreak, as they just need a litter box placed near their trainer's toilet. They will quickly figure out what to do from there.

Growlithe can be overly territorial. They will bark at or even bite any unfamiliar human who gets near their trainer's home. They have even been known to growl at people who bump into their trainer on a crowded street. Discipline and good training can reduce this impulse, but not eliminate it.

Arcanine are not as hierarchal as growlithe are. This makes them far more difficult to train. The difficulty is only slightly offset by their respect for a trainer who got them to evolve before they naturally would have (see Evolution). Most of the above paragraphs on growlithe care also apply to arcanine. However, trainers should note that arcanine have substantially more energy than growlithe do. They will demand to play with their trainer for at least an hour a day, and they often object to being held in pokéballs for more than a few hours at a time. Arcanine will also insist on continuing to sleep alongside their trainer, even if they are now much, much larger. They are less sensitive to rule-breaking than growlithe are, although they will sometimes go too far in retaliating against anyone who threatens their trainer. This reflects their natural behavior of hunting down and killing any predators who attack growlithe.

Fully grown arcanine can be trained to wear a harness and give rides to their trainer. Their fur is not particularly hot.

Illness

Arcanine are not susceptible to many internal parasites because of the intense heat that they sometimes generate inside of their body. They can still get flea and tick bites, and they should be regularly groomed to check for them. The most threatening diseases to wild and captive arcanine in other parts of the world are rabies and canine distemper virus. All wild and captive arcanine in Alola are vaccinated against these illnesses, and any imported arcanine must also be vaccinated.

Evolution

Throughout their lifetime, growlithe slowly develop larger flame sacs and more ability to control their own flames. Once they become very experienced and powerful in their use of fire, the evolution process will begin. Evolution takes roughly three years of growth to bring a growlithe to their full size. Growlithe grow very little between their tenth birth day and evolution, so any growlithe larger than the average and still growing is assumed to be evolving. In the wild, growlithe typically evolve between 100 and 200 years of age.

They can evolve much, much earlier through the use of fire stones. These should be kept near the growlithe as they sleep. As a consequence, the trainer must also share a bed with a very hot rock every night. Fire resistant bedding is advised. The fire stone will stimulate the growth of the growlithe's fire sacs as the body mistakenly believes that the growlithe itself is able to generate the fire aura and they need larger sacs to handle the flames. Evolution via fire stone takes roughly one year, as opposed to three.

The advantage of this is that the growlithe will evolve within their trainer's lifetime. There are several disadvantages, though.

As mentioned above (see Husbandry), arcanine are harder to keep in line than growlithe. By virtue of being much larger they also require more space and more food. Most importantly, growlithe that evolve prematurely are not yet able to safely and effectively harness the flames they can now produce. This makes any use of their fire potentially dangerous for up to three decades after premature evolution. Even the most experienced of trainers will have to drop all other training paths and focus solely on their arcanine's fire control. This process will still take several years to complete, even for professional arcanine breeders.

Battling

Arcanine are massive, have powerful flames, and can move faster than almost any other pokémon that can't fly. This gives them several paths in battle. They can be zoners that use their speed and powerful fire attacks to keep other pokémon away. They can also be very effective rushdown pokémon, using a burst of speed to close the gap and ripping into their opponent with powerful elementally infused full body tackles such as close combat, flare blitz or wild charge. They can also use thunder or fire fang and crunch to take advantage of their powerful bite. Alternatively, they can play defense. They are very large and can repel anything that gets close, or scare them off with roar. Their speed also allows them to dodge many attacks. Morning sun or rest, combined with toxic and burns, let them outlast their opponent.

Arcanine are not the best at any of these strategies. There are bulkier pokémon with more reliable methods of recovery or attack blocking. There are better zoners and rushdown attackers. There are even better fire-types at some of these things. But there is no single pokémon that is better at all three of them. This makes arcanine versatile, able to change up their playstyle to match the opponent or to take out particularly troublesome threats. They are used on the main team of nine of the world's Top 100 trainers.

No trainer on an island challenge is likely to have an arcanine. Their evolution takes longer than the average island challenge lasts and they cannot usually be adopted or captured (see Acquisition). Even if a trainer did have a recently evolved arcanine, they are unlikely to be able to safely wield their fire attacks and will have to rely on their size and other elemental moves.

Growlithe function differently than arcanine in battle. They typically do not have the life experience to learn the sheer variety of moves that an old arcanine will know. Growlithe typically depend on bites, moderately powerful fire attacks, and a few utility moves such as agility or roar. They function as fairly typical rushdown pokémon, getting in close with an initial sprint and then tearing away with bites. Growlithe are strong for the first part of the island challenge, but they will be underpowered by the end of the second island.

Acquisition

Growlithe can be captured with a Class III license or purchased or adopted with a Class II license. Arcanine capture in Alola is forbidden without DNR permission. Arcanine can be adopted or purchased with a Class IV license.

The growlithe pack hunts in the coastal plains of Routes 2 and 3. They rest along the Anahula River on Route 2. They have successfully driven zorua, furfrou and rockruff into the forests, urban areas, and mountains of Melemele. Ambushing a growlithe to capture them is not recommended; the entire pack will band together to resist an unwanted capture. The best way to capture a growlithe is to camp out near the Anahula river for a few days with non-canine pokémon. Eventually a growlithe may approach and test the trainer. If they decide the trainer is worthy, they will go willingly.

Growlithe can also be purchased or adopted from most canine breeders and pokémon shelters in Alola. The Alolan government prefers to get arcanine out of the archipelago due to the disruptive effect they can have on local ecology. Aside from the occasional migratory salamence, arcanine would be the largest predator on Melemele.

Breeding

Arcanine are not as territorial with each other as growlithe packs are. They will often share overlapping ranges. They hunt separately. In times of scarcity, arcanine will more strictly enforce their territories.

But in times of plenty, arcanine will sometimes cross paths and briefly socialize. Sometimes a male and female arcanine with overlapping territory will develop a respect for each other and, eventually, mate. The female has a forty-month pregnancy, during which time the male will typically guard and even hunt for his mate. Arcanine have litters of eight to twelve puppies. The arcanine pair will care for them until they reach roughly two years of age, at which point they will be able to eat exclusively solid foods. The female arcanine will go around to every growlithe pack in the range and give one to three puppies to each pack to care for.

In captivity, a pair of arcanine can share the same trainer and space. They may eventually mate. Arcanine will trust their trainer to distribute the puppies once they are fully weaned. Arcanine will grow aggressive towards their puppies if they stay on the same team for more than three years.

Subspecies

N/A


	30. Hypno

Overview

Hypno is one of the easiest psychic-types to care for in Alola. They are intelligent and social, and each has a distinct personality. They don't require the same level of enrichment as slowking and oranguru. They do not need to sleep, drink or eat physical food. Their diet is provided routinely and automatically by their trainer and teammates. They are protective of humans, especially children. Contrary to their reputation, hypno are an entirely safe family pokémon.

Perhaps most importantly, they can respect and communicate with humans with even below-average PSY scores.

Physiology

Hypno and drowzee are both classified as pure-psychic types. Neither typing is disputed.

Hypno are true psychics. Like most true psychics, their organ structure is usually similar to humans but contains many irregularities distinct to each individual. See the mime sr. entry for more details. They disappear upon death. Hypno and musharna make up a branch of the true psychics referred to as the dream psychics. They do not warp the fabric of reality to the same degree as mime sr., but they have extraordinarily powerful telepathy related to sleep and dreams. Their telepathy works on anything with a sleep or resting stage, even if the species is ordinarily very resistant to mental attacks.

Drowzee are born with dark brown fur. As they grow older, golden spots and stripes begin to appear. Eventually, the colors settle into dark brown fur on their bottom half and golden fur on the upper half. The pattern at the border of the two areas is unique to the individual. Drowzee are primarily quadrupedal, although they can stand on two legs when necessary. Drowzee's most notable feature is their proboscis. They have large mouths and often produce vocalizations that sound like whines or yawns.

Hypno have golden fur across almost their entire body. The exception is a ring of thick, fluffy white fur around their neck. Hypno lose their proboscis' mobility as it shortens and hardens into a hooked nose. Hypno also lose their mouths, although they often retain stomachs and lungs with no connection to the outside of the body. Hypno's ears grow continuously until they die, growing more powerful with age. Both drowzee and hypno have functional eyes, but their light-based vision is very limited (see Behavior). They are almost entirely bipedal.

Hypno typically grow to a height of 1.5 meters and a mass of 75 kilograms. Their lifespan closely tracks the average human lifespan in their habitat.

Behavior

Both drowzee and hypno feed upon dreams. They strongly prefer human dreams, or at least those of highly intelligent pokémon, but they will settle for any species' dreams. They also prefer younger prey as they have more REM sleep than older members of their species.

Drowzee do not yet have powerful hypnotic abilities. Their means of putting something to sleep are limited to yawns that carry a telepathic signal, relaxing everything that hears them. Two to five of these yawns (depending upon the age of the drowzee and the exhaustion of the human) can put a human to sleep. Once their prey is asleep, drowzee put their proboscis over the nostrils of their prey. Their breath keeps their prey knocked out for the duration of the feeding, and also stimulates dreaming. Drowzee are satiated after two to three hours of consuming human dreams.

Hypno have more effective ways of knocking out prey. They can initiate a telepathic link by eye contact. This link can be manipulated by means of a pendulum whose pattern is slightly altered by telekinetic pushes. After establishing eye contact for roughly half of a second, hypno can convince a target to follow rudimentary orders or to enter into a dormant stage. This dormancy is similar to sleep, but differs in two key ways. The first is that the target's eyes are open, aside from blinking. The second is that the sleep has proportionally more REM sleep than the prey would otherwise have. Hypno lose control of their target after three full seconds of broken eye contact. They typically order their target to sleep and forget when feeding ends, resulting in their prey waking up refreshed and confused after a few more hours of sleep.

Both drowzee and hypno have a strong preference for happy individuals, especially happy children. This is because they often have happier dreams, which are more satiating and better tasting. To conserve their favored prey, hypno are very defensive of children of all species in their territory. When they believe that a parent or other adult is making a child miserable, they will knock out the adult and whisk the child away. Contrary to popular belief, hypno do not keep the child. They simply move the child away and leave them with a new adult. So-called "hypno orphans" usually wake up with all traumatic and otherwise unpleasant memories erased, along with all memories that could be used to identify their old parent. This process can make hypno sick for up to two months but the same hypno have been documented doing it multiple times, fully aware of the cost to themselves.

Husbandry

Hypno and drowzee are rather easy to feed. They should simply be let out of their pokéball while their trainer sleeps. Drowzee feedings will lead to less rejuvenation per hour slept, but they do not have to feed for very long so the total effect is the equivalent of a lost hour a night. Hypno trances are more rejuvenating in total, but then hypno takes some of the rest away as they feed. The trances are still more rejuvenating per hour than actual sleep, though, and they allow trainers to perfectly set their own sleep schedule.

Hypno and drowzee will sometimes show their trainers very good dreams they have fed upon in the past. They can also prevent trainers from remembering nightmares, although this can make them sick for the next day or two (see Illness).

This feeding is physically addictive. However, the only symptoms are felt upon withdrawal. Because hypno have a human-equivalent lifespan, a hypno trainer can freely feed their pokémon with very minimal risk of withdrawal. Hypno have been phased out of regular hospital use because getting someone addicted to the trances and then taking them away can lead to headaches, insomnia, nausea, dizziness, and forgetfulness for up to twenty days.

Hypno will grow frustrated with depressed trainers. This does mean that they will do everything in their power to keep their trainer happy. However, chronic depression will limit the ability of a trainer to feed their pokémon. As such, depressed trainers should not capture drowzee or hypno. If a trainer becomes depressed after obtaining the pokémon, it is best to acquire other teammates that can feed the hypno.

The best partner for hypno is komala (see Acquisition). Other good partners are intelligent pokémon that are not psychic- or dark-types. Pokémon of those types can make it more difficult for hypno to absorb dreams from them. Good dream providers include ninetales, sylveon, lapras, primarina, passimian, blissey, lucario, and dragonite. Other nocturnal pokémon and psychic-types can keep a hypno entertained while they are not feeding.

Hypno prefer to hide and relax during the day, even if they do not properly sleep. They are fine being in pokéballs from dawn until dusk. They do not need much social interaction with their trainer while awake because of the form their telepathy takes. Trainers without a high PSY score will not be able to have a standard telepathic conversation with their hypno. All but the most powerful of telepaths will not be able to talk to their hypno without making eye contact.

Hypno can talk to almost all humans in dreams. Shortly before or after feeding, hypno can create an artificial dreamscape and talk to their trainer. Hypno may retain their form, take a human form, or go with something else entirely. The majority of hypno use either a distinctly male or distinctly female telepathic voice and seem to identify with that gender. Hypno do not have an anatomical sex (see Breeding). Hypno do not have full control over the dreamscape and must integrate elements from dreams they have fed upon to create it. Older hypno have more options and more dreams in reserve and can create more elaborate dreamscapes. Most hypno are very pleasant to everyone, especially the person that feeds them, and will create pleasant experiences. Angry hypno can be terrifying in the dreamscape, as they control reality itself and there is nothing the victim can do to break free. Thankfully outside of child abuse or abusing the hypno itself, it is difficult to provoke this wrath.

Hypno do not produce waste. They do not need to drink or breathe. Because their socialization needs are met while their trainer is asleep, they are a very easy pokémon to care for. Their intelligence and dreamscape control also make them a good and loyal friend. They can also be trusted to carefully protect children and other family members.

Illness

Hypno illnesses are temporary and untreatable. They can be brought on by injury in battle, consuming too many unpleasant dreams, or not consuming enough dreams. The solution to all injuries is rest, food, and a break from battles. Hypno's more physical injuries can also be cured by some herbal medicines, pokémon moves, and artificial medicines.

The usual symptoms of more mental hypno illnesses include grumpiness, antisocial behavior, a lack of energy, pained expressions with no apparent cause, and an aversion to light.

Evolution

Drowzee gradually evolve into hypno between five and eight years of age. The formal demarcation point is when the pokémon begins to play with pendulums. Hypno do not reach sexual maturity until they are roughly sixteen years old, although they otherwise reach their final size and appearance around twelve years of age.

Their evolution can be accelerated a little by frequent battling, but not to nearly the same extent as most other species.

Battle

Hypno's effectiveness in a metagame depends on what the relevant sleep clause is. The United States Competitive Pokémon Association holds that if a pokémon on the opposing team is already asleep, then no sleep-inducing moves may be used. However, a pokémon being asleep does not cause the switch timer to expire or move at a faster rate.

This means that hypno is best used as the only sleep-inducer on a team. When they enter the field, they should immediately set about trying to hypnotize the opponent. Unfortunately, this is easily countered by the simple command, "Close your eyes!" Fortunately, this means that the opposing pokémon will be blind against hypno.

Offensively, hypno has more physical strength than the average true psychic but not much more than the average pokémon. Their telekinesis is also somewhat limited. They can be absolutely devastating to the psyche of a sleeping opponent, warping the dreamscape to break the opponent's will to fight. But outside of the dreamscape, hypno have to boost for a few minutes with nasty plot or calm mind to be a serious offensive threat.

In practice, hypno are best played by trying to control the field and disrupt the opposing pokémon until they make the mistake of opening their eyes to navigate. Hypno can do this with barrier, light screen and reflect, poison gas, thunder wave, disable, and psychic terrain.

Unfortunately, this dependence on many utility moves makes hypno rather hard to train for the island challenge. Part of this is that gaining proficiency in many moves is harder and more time consuming than gaining mastery over one. Part of the difficulty is just learning the basics of the moves themselves. Several of these moves are TMs or require specialist tutoring, which can be time-consuming or expensive. Hypno can bridge the gap a little by eating the dreams and combing the memories of pokémon that can use these attacks. However, this requires having teammates who already know these attacks. Sometimes memory eating destroys the memory itself, requiring a retraining of the pokémon the move was learned from.

Drowzee are less able to inflict ranged sleep. As such, they are best used as somewhat bulky physical attackers who can hit up close with their fists or relatively weak elemental attacks. Both drowzee and hypno can take a few hits before falling, especially if those hits are weakened by a utility move. Drowzee can compliment their weak offensive abilities and decent bulk through poison gas or toxic, making them fit on more stall-oriented teams.

Acquisition

Drowzee and hypno can be purchased, adopted, or captured with a Class II license.

The species has been introduced to all four major islands to help protect the local komala population. Because komala are always asleep and apparently always happy, hypno adore them. Hypno are incredibly protective of their preferred food source, and will fight any would-be predators of the endangered komala.

Hypno were later removed from Ula'Ula when the komala population had recovered enough to allow for capture, as the threat hypno posed to trainers became greater than the boost to komala numbers was worth. Hypno and drowzee capture is allowed on Melemele and Poni, but not on Akala. They are most often found at the edge of forests along the coast. The species takes shelter in forests during the day, and dreams near the ocean are apparently more pleasant. Drowzee and hypno are best captured by waiting for them to come to you. Stay awake at night in prime hypno territory with only one pokémon out. If a drowzee approaches, try to capture it. If a hypno does, it is best to tell your pokémon to back down and try to reason with the hypno in the dreamscape. If the trainer's dreams are good enough, the hypno will usually join the team willingly.

Breeding

Hypno often have identified genders. Roughly 40% identify as male, 40% as female, and 20% identify as both or neither. Hypno have no genitalia and no physical differences based on gender. Hypno can reproduce with any other hypno, regardless of the gender of the two parents.

When a hypno finds someone with very good dreams, they implant part of their psyche into the prey. This is not noticeable outside of direct psychic attacks or scans. It does make the prey more resistant to telepathy and may provide a slight boost to intelligence, but has no other effects.

If another hypno feeds from the same prey, and agrees that the dreams are very good, they will remove the embedded psyche, merge it with a fragment of their own, and give it physical form. The resulting drowzee will have an appearance and genome equivalent to a child made through sexual reproduction between the parents. The personality and instincts will be a mix of the two hypno parents and the host used to create the child.

This may sound like a strange way to reproduce, but hypno are equally baffled by human reproduction.

Hypno do not like sharing the same trainer in captivity. In effect, hypno breeding requires having two hypno and only using one at a time. Because they are social and intelligent pokémon that trainers can converse with, most are unwilling to do this. Hypno are generally fine with not reproducing if doing so would require leaving their trainer.

After birth, drowzee is cared for by the second parent for the first eight to ten years of their life. Hypno can reproduce multiple times over the course of their life and are willing to raise multiple children at once. Newborn drowzee are only about ten centimeters long and spend most of their time in their parent's soft neck fur. As they grow older, hypno allow their offspring to rest their head against the fur while being carried. When transporting "rescued" children between parents, hypno also comfort the child by letting them rest against their fur. It is believed that this fur induces calmness and drowsiness, but the effect is lost when the fur is removed from the hypno.

Subspecies

N/A


	31. Spiritomb

_This week's entry of The Alola Pokedex is a tribute to_ _Ghost Town_ _by eldestOyster for tying for the top prize in Serebii's 2018 Fan Fiction Awards. You can check it out on her profile. Be forewarned that this entry contains massive spoilers for the ending of_ _Ghost Town_ _._

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Downloading from The Alola Pokédex Online Appendix . . .

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 **Spiritomb (Dr. Tacoma Spearing)**

Overview

Human psychics are well-studied. We may not understand why their powers work, but we understand how they do. There are other classes of humans with uncommon, pokémon-like abilities that are more poorly understood. These include channelers, humans who can communicate with the dead. Channelers are well documented in the modern era, even if modern science cannot yet explain much about them at all.

Mages and magic are a blind spot for researchers. Magic is here defined as incantation or text based "spells" that perform a non-psychic or channeling effect impossible for most humans. There are reports of magic in almost all ancient cultures, but almost no verifiable reports among modern humans. Some very well-respected scientists believe that magic never existed at all. What passed for "magic" were just humans performing elaborate tricks with hidden pokémon, or the interventions of extraordinarily powerful legendary pokémon.

Spiritomb is one of the main arguments against this theory.

Humans on six continents created spiritomb. There are depictions of them in the crypts of Old Kingdom pharaohs, although the oldest continuously documented spiritomb only dates back to the Song Dynasty. The myths of spiritomb creation, powers and behaviors are remarkably similar across cultures. Between spiritomb and golurk, our ancestors clearly had a way to engineer phantoms. This might be explainable as sufficiently advanced science, but depictions of spiritomb are not correlated to a civilization's level of social and scientific advancement.

The most plausible explanation is simply that there are ways not currently understood for humans to exercise control over the world of phantoms. Spiritomb is also a strong argument that we may have been better off unlearning this control. By all accounts their creation process required mass death, ritual suicide, and the traumatization of scores of souls. The end product is a powerful and unpredictable pokémon prone to fits of murderous rage.

Physiology

Spiritomb is classified as a dual ghost- and dark- type Pokémon. The ghost typing is undisputed. The dark-typing is in review, as spiritomb are vulnerable to telepathic attacks unless they go out of their way to shield themselves. Their other characteristics (shadow manipulation, most active at night, shocking displays of brutality, hostility towards humanity, above average intelligence) are definitely in line with a dark typing. It is widely expected that the Department of Agriculture will maintain the typing after their review.

There are three superkingdoms of pokémon: organics, machines, and phantoms. Organics are carbon-based and physiologically similar to ordinary plants, animals, and protists. Machines are not carbon-based and usually reproduce by external assembly of offspring from raw materials, or at least from parts of the parent's body. Phantoms exist primarily on another plane, with portions of their being overlapping in the physical realm. Phantoms must derive their energy from the mental processes and psychic radiation of other species.

There are pokémon that blur the lines between these categories. The true psychics often feed on mental processes and exist primarily on another plane, but they have a physical carbon-based body.

Another borderline family of pokémon are the constructs. Many phantoms possess objects and use them to interact with the physical world. Constructs were originally objects that, through means still poorly understood, were given life by humans. The constructs do not need to feed from the minds of others: all of their energy comes from the process that created them. While this well is theoretically finite, no known construct has ever expired from hunger. Unlike other phantoms, they can be killed by destroying their physical body as they cannot reform one or possess another object on their own (see Illness).

Spiritomb's body is a single smooth stone, usually conical in shape, with a small opening at the surface. The stone is hollow, and sonar scans confirm that the hole does lead into the interior. However, no object can pass through the hole and no light comes out. There is often, but not always, at least one crack running along the stone's surface.

Active spiritomb can create projections from the hole. These are usually spinning discs of purple gas with green dots scattered throughout it. A green face usually appears on the disc. Aside from their disc, some spiritomb project a purple and green version of the currently manifesting spirit's face at the time of death.

Spiritomb can weigh as much as 108 kilograms, but most are considerably lighter. Ten to twenty kilograms seems to be a more typical mass. Spiritomb's keystones are typically 0.3 to 0.5 meters in length. The height of their disc is highly variable depending on the spiritomb's power, energy, and emotional state.

Behavior

The first thing to know when interacting with spiritomb is that there are 70 to 200 souls sharing one body. Sometimes there is one dominant spirit and no others will ever take charge of the disc. Sometimes multiple spirits share the disc at once. For most spiritomb, a handful of spirits take turns controlling the disc, with one to five in control most of the time and others occasionally taking the reins. Different spirits can either broadly cooperate or go out of their way to undo whatever the last controlling spirit did.

Each soul has a different personality, emotional state, level of intelligence, and relationship to others. One spirit can be very fond of a trainer and would never harm them. The next might kill their trainer at the first opportunity. This makes interacting with them extremely dangerous and never safe, however docile the pokémon appears to be.

Spiritomb also have varying levels of activity across time. Some spiritomb, while not technically dormant (see Illness), can go for centuries without manifesting a disc. Other spiritomb keep a disc up near-constantly. Most spiritomb will wake up every night for a few years or decades, and then spend about the same amount of time silent.

Motivations vary by spiritomb. Many are very bloodthirsty, going out of their way to kill everything they possibly can. Others can have long, peaceful conversations with passers-by. Some can go from one extreme to the other in the blink of an eye. A minority of spiritomb attempt to fulfill some goal that the dominant spirit had in life.

Dr. Spearing has suggested that spiritomb's individual spirits may still be human enough to warrant traditional psychiatric diagnoses. Their violence stems from their nature in life and circumstances of creation (see Breeding), the shock of death, being confined with other rage-filled spirits, having a human mind but no contact with living humans, dysmorphia, and the stressors of being near-immortal. These stressors include watching everyone the spirit cared about inevitably die, the human mind not being built to hold up for centuries or millennia, and the increasing inability to recognize the world around them.

This theory goes a long way towards explaining spiritomb behavior. Application of traditional talk therapy has substantially calmed a captive spiritomb owned by Castelia University's ghost studies department. However, even that spiritomb is still prone to fits of violence and withdrawal.

Husbandry

Many pokémon that occasionally attack and eat wild humans can be trained rather easily. Pyroar and incineroar are social felines that adjust well to human care when raised from birth, for example. Even most dragons can be kept complacent so long as they are well fed and given outlets for their hunting instincts. Another group of pokémon often kill their trainers on accident due to their sheer power and obliviousness to human life. Volcarona is the best example of this in Alola.

Then there are the pokémon that don't prey upon humans for food, but rather for sport. They cannot be tamed. Even specimens raised from birth in captivity can and will kill their doting caretaker on a whim. These pokémon can never under any circumstances be trusted. The best, and perhaps only, way to train them is to keep them on a team stacked with other powerhouses that love their trainer and will put down the attacker the second they step out of line. This usually works to deter vanilluxe. Metagross often just see it as a puzzle to be solved.

Spiritomb cannot be killed (see Illness). They know they cannot be killed. Some know this, but still want to die badly enough that they will lash out at anything that might overpower them in hopes of it being their final fight. As such, mutually assured destruction usually does nothing at all or backfires when caring for spiritomb.

Most captive spiritomb are communicated with through intercoms and video feeds. There are constantly pokéballs ready to withdraw them. If that fails, the cells have a built-in weapons system. This is not viable for traveling trainers.

If you absolutely must care for a spiritomb on the road, the most reliable means of doing so is through consistently kind, empathetic interactions. This works best on spiritomb with a single dominant spirit, and even then it only works on one with the right temperament. If a spiritomb has a motivation that the human can assist with, they will be far less likely to kill their trainer or break reasonable rules. The most common motivation is seeing more of the world, as some spiritomb have been stuck in the same place for millennia. Even non-violent spiritomb can be verbally abusive, so consistent calm can be difficult to maintain.

Spiritomb cannot eat or drink. They do not produce waste. Most sleep, but this is apparently not strictly necessary.

Only two spiritomb are trained by individuals (as opposed to institutions) in the world. For legal purposes, Dr. Spearing is owned by Jodi Ortega. The other spiritomb is trained by Shirona Karashina, regional champion of the Sinnoh League in Japan.

Illness

Spiritomb get tired after sustaining heavy damage to their disc and projections, or after using offensive attacks. The pokémon will rest, if not sleep, for a time after their injuries. Pokémon Centers and conventional medication are useless on spiritomb, and ultimately unnecessary as the pokémon can fully recover from virtually anything on their own. They also do not suffer from any of the typical phantom diseases.

The pokémon's keystone is practically invulnerable. Famously, Karashina's spiritomb retreated into its keystone right before taking a meteor mash from a mega evolved metagross. The impact of the stone shattered the mime sr. created walls of the arena. The spiritomb came out apparently unharmed a second after the stone fell to the ground. The keystone had not been scratched.

This stone is also the only way to kill a spirtomb. While no spiritomb has been killed in the modern age, images and texts from the Achaemenid Empire and twelfth century Cahokia have depicted a spiritomb being killed by a sword blessed by the gods slicing through the keystone. The species' weakness to fairy attacks, traditionally viewed as holy or divine energy, suggests that this may be a viable way of killing one.

One spiritomb has been temporarily sealed in the modern era. This involved detonating a fairy-tinged attack with the equivalent force of a small atomic bomb right on top of a spiritomb. The stone went inactive for fifteen years with channelers reporting that the dominant spirit was simply gone, and the others were nearly destroyed.

That spiritomb reactivated as soon as someone died near it, trapping that soul in the process. All attempts to neutralize spiritomb were quickly abandoned as not worth the effort.

Evolution

Spiritomb may be capable of evolution. There is only one instance of this in the modern era and no ancient records, legends, or drawings suggest it had happened before. In January 1977, Dr. Tacoma Spearing underwent a radical change in appearance. She initially appeared as a woman with roughly the same appearance as she had before death. At present, she resembles her initial appearance altered to match her chronological age. She has demonstrated the ability to instantly revert to her initial appearance and has suggested it is her true form. Any deviations are illusions.

She deviates from her pre-death appearance in a few ways. Her body is slightly translucent, especially when she is tired. Her keystone, now with several more cracks, floats where her heart should be. The edges of her body are always indistinct and blurring into mist. Her hair is made up of purple tendrils that move with a mind of their own but generally hang down.

Dr. Spearing has consistently refused to submit herself to more detailed testing. As such, this is the extent of our knowledge on her physiology.

She has theorized that spiritomb have a bond-based evolution. If one ever gets close enough to a living human, their keystone will shatter and all spirits will have a choice of moving on or staying in an evolved state. She chose to stay and all other spirits passed. Dr. Spearing has stated that she could still pass if she desired to do so. While spiritomb feed off of the energy well imbued in them at construction, she has a more traditional phantom diet of strong emotions. Her preferred emotion is love, but she has stated that she can feed on hatred, disgust, irritation, envy, sadness, anger, and the feeling that comes from knowing that you've forgotten something very important but can't remember exactly what it was.

Battle

Because there is only one spiritomb that regularly battles, almost all of what we know comes from it. This is complicated by Karsahina's reputation as a fearsome strategist and trainer. Her garchomp, for example, is the only pokémon to ever knock out Richard Conrad's victini. There are no other reports of victini ever being defeated.

Spiritomb appears to be entirely invulnerable while retreated into its keystone. As such, spending more than fifteen seconds in the keystone over a sixty second period is considered to be a knockout. It does take roughly half a second for spiritomb to finish withdrawing, which still leaves it vulnerable to some very fast and powerful attacks. Even with its disc out, Karashina's spiritomb has taken hits from a _Battler_ -ranked trainer's signature pokémon for over an hour without going down. This was not an anomaly, as it has never been knocked out in less than thirty minutes in an official match.

While not as strong as it is durable, spirtomb can still spew out plumes of ghostly flames, send out anti-telepathic bursts and actual telepathic attacks, and control shadows in the environment. Spiritomb has shown the ability to harden shadows into blades and move them with enough force to penetrate a rhyperior's skin.

Spiritomb has no reliable means of recovery, outside of some weak energy sapping. This makes it vulnerable to being worn down by repeated hits, especially from fairy types. Still, Karashina's spiritomb is almost as feared as her garchomp. Unprepared trainers, even world-class ones, have found their team systematically destroyed by it.

Other spiritomb are similarly powerful, if not quite as well trained. Their biggest weakness is that they like to toy with their prey rather than finishing it off immediately, giving chances to retaliate. While these retaliatory strikes likely will not knock out the spiritomb, they may stun it for long enough to escape.

Dr. Spearing is less durable than the average spiritomb. She has been harmed by attacks that a normal spiritomb would laugh off, although she has kept battling through them. When genuinely upset, her offensive powers dwarf even Karashina's spiritomb. While spiritomb can manipulate small shadows, Dr. Spearing can move all darkness in an area as a single mass, and even extinguish light sources. Her main difference from spiritomb is that she can fly at speeds up to eight meters per second, while spiritomb are incapable of moving their keystone more than a centimeter or two a minute.

Acquisition

Spiritomb require a Class V license to purchase, adopt, or capture.

Outside of Karashina's visits, there is only one spiritomb in Alola. It resides in lāh Palace, the old home of the Hawaiian monarchs. While it was dormant for nearly two centuries, the spiritomb awakened at some point over the last three years and has slowly been moving through the castle. At least two people have been killed after encountering it, with another three surviving encounters. Two of those three were badly injured.

The palace is a restricted area. Permission to enter is at the discretion of the Ula'Ula kahuna. Capturing the spiritomb is unwise, as it is presently confined to an abandoned area, but it is technically legal.

According to legend, this spiritomb was created in the 15th century after the Lanakila War when the losing chief, her family, her best warriors, and some other Ula'ula chiefs were bound into the keystone as punishment for the Lanakila Massacre. There she killed the three island chiefs on sacred ground in a bid to take over the archipelago. Her name was struck from history and few other details about her have survived. It is believed that she is the dominant spirit in the pokémon.

Breeding

Spirtomb were created by a high priest of the local gods sealing seventy to two hundred sinners into a ritually prepared stone. The incantations used to create spiritomb have mostly been lost to time, but the fragments found appear to be phonetically similar to each other across centuries and oceans. The process appeared to involve ritual human sacrifice of the sinners. At the end, the priest would kill themselves on top of the keystone and complete the ritual. Whether the priest was one of the sealed sinners themselves seems to vary by culture.

A handful of modern cults have attempted to create spiritomb. None have succeeded.

No spiritomb has ever reproduced with another pokémon. Encounters between spiritomb tend to end in fights or both parties withdrawing into their keystones and refusing to talk. The one evolved spiritomb, Dr. Spearing, has not produced offspring. She is in a long-term romantic relationship with a human of the opposite gender and self-identifies as a lesbian.

Subspecies

None known.


	32. Luxray

_This week's entry of The Alola Pokedex is a tribute to_ _The Curious and the Shiny: New Game Plus_ _by NebulaDreams for tying for the top prize in Serebii's 2018 Fan Fiction Awards. You can check it out on their profile. Be forewarned that this entry contains moderate spoilers._

Downloading from The Alola Pokédex Online Appendix . . .

 **Luxray (Shinx, Luxio)**

Overview

Pokémon are not equally intelligent. Some, such as slowpoke, may not be sapient or sentient at all. Many have intelligence roughly equivalent to a non-pokémon animal or a human toddler. Others roughly equal us in intellect. Slowking see us as toddlers, metagross as dumb pets.

Pokémon are also not mutually intelligible. Members of _Carnivora_ can't understand the language of most ungulates, and vice-versa. There is an open debate over the extent to which pokémon even have languages, in the human understanding of them.

At some point, perhaps as early as 1980 and perhaps continuing to the present, at least one group set out to change this. No records survive and all of our knowledge comes from the few participants in the programs who want to talk about their experience. Their reports mostly align, and the results, talking pokémon from several species that have never spoken before, lend credibility to them.

Some of the survivors have settled in around the world. Many have begun to raise families that display similar intelligence. The results appear to be more pronounced in less intelligent species, with affected alakazam being only marginally smarter than the baseline for their species (albeit with fewer of the mental health drawbacks). These new populations have been preliminarily dubbed gestalt pokémon.

The only gestalt population on Alola is a group of luxray on Akala. Given the large number of gestalt luxray around the world, most of whom claim to be from different facilities, as well as the slight genetic variance in gestalt luxray, these were probably genetically modified and captive bred by the responsible organizations.

Gestalt luxray are a protected species in Alola. Capture is only permitted with the luxray's consent. Please be aware that these luxray are considered to have slightly above average intelligence by human standards. Furthermore, they have the most human-like mentality of any other pokémon species in Alola. Trainers who are not prepared to treat their pokémon as equals should avoid training this species.

Physiology

Gestalt luxray are pure electric-types.

Outside of some slight genetic differences, a more elastic brain structure, and more complex vocal chords, gestalt luxray are identical to standard eastern luxray.

The back half of shinx is coated in black fur, and most of the front half in blue. A yellow star tops their long, thin tail. The star and the tail are the shinx's primary tool for channeling electric discharges. Shinx have ringed golden eyes and a black "collar" of fur. They also sport yellow bands on their front ankles and yellow inner ears. These are not used to channel attacks and are purely ornamental. The size of the ears gives shinx the best hearing of the feline pokémon.

Luxio develop a more complex ornament on their tail, allowing for more powerful and accurate discharges. They gain another stripe on their forelegs. Shinx's thin black collar grows into a head-framing black mane of fur as they grow. Luxio's ears are proportionally smaller than shinx's, but they are larger overall and shinx's senses get stronger with age until they are fully grown.

Luxray have a different coat pattern than shinx and luxio. The back legs are covered in blue fur, while the black mane expands to cover the front of the forelegs. Another stripe develops on the forelegs, but all stripes are now only visible from the back. Luxray have a very large headcrest, but it sticks back in large tufts rather than encircling their full face like a male pyroar. A small blue patch develops in their midsection.

The species is one of two electric cats, along with umpaka. Their electricity is generated by muscle movements and stored inside of their fur as static. The fluffier a luxray is, the more danger it presents in a fight. Their bolts are channeled with their tail. Alternatively, they can be steadily discharged from their fur to create a glowing effect or a temporary shield of static electricity, depending upon the amount released.

Luxray (and, to a lesser extent, luxio) also have the ability to sense electrical currents around them. This ability includes the currents in the nervous systems of other animals and pokémon. While using this ability, the pokémon's sclera glows red.

Adult luxray are typically around one meter in height and weigh around forty kilograms. The lifespan of the eastern luxray is fifteen years. Several gestalt luxray have reached this age with no serious deterioration. In fact, no gestalt luxray has yet showed signs of aging.

Behavior

Young shinx often have only a limited ability to speak, although they can understand most feline pokémon from birth and begin to develop an understanding of other spoke languages before their first birthday. They will usually not be able to speak fluently and without stutters or other errors in any non-feline language until they are nearly two years old.

Because luxio and luxray can track patterns much more complex than letters, luxray are among the most literate of the gestalt species. They can often read in several languages before they master speaking other feline dialects.

The Alolan charge of luxray live as one large family group.

While male and female luxray look very similar (although the males manes are a little longer), they are very different in temperament. Male luxray shy away from all violence and are generally laid-back, social, and considerate. They raise the kittens in the wild. Females are high-strung, somewhat rude, and love violent play. Female luxio and luxray hunt for the charge. Both genders and all three stages are obligate carnivores.

Husbandry

Gestalt luxray have many of the same advantages and drawbacks as other intelligent, social species. Males can be taught rules and routines from a very young age and will attempt to obey them, even if there is very little in the way of reinforcement. Females will at least understand rules, but see no need to obey them.

Luxray should be provided with an abundance of reading materials as books are their preferred toys. While they are capable of reading electronic books, they strongly prefer paper books as they are easier to use without breaking them. Females will also entertain themselves by hunting or through battle. Males are reluctant battlers and prefer socializing and exploring. Some sort of a fitness regimen should be given to a male luxio right after acquisition to ensure they stay in shape. It is best if the trainer engages in the same activities to avoid building resentments.

Eastern and gestalt luxray are ambivalent about water. Eastern luxray will sometimes swim in the wild for entertainment, hunting, or transportation. Gestalt luxray prefer not to get wet as it interferes with their ability to store charge, but will do so for baths. Because the bathing and grooming processes necessarily entail electric discharges, anti-static gear should be worn at these times.

Male luxray will eat dry cat food or well-cooked meat. Female luxray enjoy fresh meat and tend not to enjoy cat food at all.

Most intelligent pokémon have mindsets that are entirely alien to humans. Even if they are as smart as a human, these pokémon should not be treated exactly like one. Zoroark and luxray are the two exceptions in Alola. Luxray need trust, respect, and freedom. They should be allowed to use their own preferred name and should not be forced to do or refrain from anything outside of dire circumstances. Suggestions, rewards and compromises are the best ways of getting them to do something that they do not want to do. Luxray will develop their own hobbies, friend groups, and interests. Gestalt luxray understand the concept of purchases and, if given an allowance, are quite capable of making their own financial choices.

Adopting a luxio is equivalent to adopting an adolescent human. You may be their legal guardian and primary caretaker. The luxio may respect and love you for it.

You will never, ever own them.

Illness

Gestalt luxray are incredibly resistant to almost every common feline disease, including rabies.

The bigger challenge for the line are mental health issues, as their brains do not have centuries of evolution to adapt to high intelligence.

Depression is the most common problem in males. It can be hard to tell a depressed male luxray from a normal one due to their natural temperament, but a total loss of interest in things they used to enjoy is the easiest symptom to identify it by. No anti-depressant works on luxray. Talk therapists willing to take on a pokémon client and qualified to do so are very rare. This means that the trainer will usually have to do their best to make sure that the luxray is regularly socializing, exercising, and eating the proper amount of food.

Females have different issues, some of which might just be the natural disposition of the species rather than a problem that should be treated. ADHD-like symptoms are one such example, as female luxray tend to have high energy and low concentration and see nothing wrong with it. Many could be diagnosable with a personality disorder, but most luxray object to this diagnosis. Even if it useful for describing the symptoms, they contend that they should not have to fit inside of human norms for no discernable reason. If their behavior is actively self-destructive, the trainer should try and subtly help with the luxray's permission. Otherwise, it is best to let sleeping cats lie.

Anxiety is the most common problem in female luxray that they will need help with. Merely being high-strung is not a problem. However, if they find themselves not engaging in things they want to do because they are constantly obsessing over risks, than they should probably be helped through it. Talking through choices with the pokémon and offering frequent reassurances are the best way for a trainer to assist.

Evolution

Shinx evolve for the first time between two and four years of age. Luxio evolve for the second time between three and five years of age. The pace of development is strongly linked to battle and hunting experience. In practice, females usually evolve before males.

Both evolutions are classic flash-evolutions that occur over a matter of seconds. The newly evolved luxio or luxray is absolutely brimming with charge upon evolution.

Battle

No _Battler_ -ranked trainer uses a luxray on their main team. Grounded electric-types struggle to justify their spot over mangezone, eelektross, vikavolt, and hodad. While they are less rough on personal electronics (luxray can even safely use computers), the lack of power and maneuverability makes them unpopular. They also struggle to compete with the faster manectric, which can also mega evolve. Despite these drawbacks, several noteworthy trainers on the Asian and European regional circuits use either an eastern or northern luxray.

Shinx, luxio, and luxray all fight in effectively the same way. They defend themselves with a shield of static electricity that grows stronger as they run around the field. The longer the battle goes, the harder it is to hurt the pokémon. Then they discharge the shield either all at once or in smaller blows. Luxray hit hard, but they are unfortunately not very durable beyond their shield. If an opponent gets in one or two strong hits very early on it will be difficult for the luxray to pull off the round. Discharges also temporarily weaken the shield. These drawbacks mean that luxray struggle as revenge killers because they need time to set up themselves, and they also have serious difficulty pulling off a sweep.

In a bind, luxray can release electricity from their claws to create long, thin electrical burns on their opponent.

Fortunately, luxray are not very common in Alola and were only recently introduced. This means that opponents may not know to hit luxray early on and keep them from running. If they try to ignore their opponent and set up, they may find themselves in for a nasty surprise.

Gestalt pokémon have the benefit of being intelligent enough to think on their own feet. This lets them handle basic responses and strategies without needing to receive commands while their trainer focuses on longer term strategies and watches for threats that are not immediately obvious.

Acquisition

Luxio require a Class II license to capture.

Per commonwealth law, only luxio may be taken from the wild. Even then, this can only occur with the luxio's explicit and ongoing consent. The charge can usually be found within the bounds of Akala National Park, usually in the lowland plains. Once or twice a month they will come to the Northern Shores Resort or Dividing Peak Tunnel. On one occasion they went all the way to the Pink Fields Stadium. They are not shy and will usually approach nearby humans.

Breeding

All luxray breeding must occur in the wild in Alola.

Getsalt luxray usually mate for life, but can end long-term relationships for many of the same reasons humans do. The female enters a twenty day pregnancy and lays four to six eggs. These eggs will hatch after roughly two weeks into shinx kittens. Newborns are usually less than six inches long and grow to their full size over the course of six months. Infant mortality rates for all subspecies of shinx are among the highest of any feline pokémon.

Curiously, gestalt luxray that spend enough time around either non-gestalt eggs or growing shinx can convert them into a gestalt shinx. This process even changes the genetic code of the converted pokémon. Neither pokémon scientists nor the luxray themselves understand how this works, and gestalt luxray almost always refuse to submit to rigorous examination.

New shinx eggs and young shinx are occasionally given to the Alolan charge to expand the population without causing severe inbreeding.

Subspecies

There are four other subspecies of luxray.

The eastern luxray are native to coastal China. They are physically near-identical to gestalt luxray. The pokémon live in charges of a dominant mated male and female pair and their descendants. Female children stay with their parents; males go to other charges to be with their new mate. One charge can consist of the dominant pair, several female children, their mates, and their children. Up to fifteen luxray have been spotted in a single charge.

When the dominant female dies, her children split up and form their own charges. If the male survives, he will typically live with one of his children until he passes. If the male survives and has no fully evolved children of his own, he will probably choose a new partner. The new dominant female will kill all of the male's surviving children before mating with him.

The subspecies sticks to dense forests near open grasslands. At night, the females go out onto the plains and try to spot their prey with their electric vision before they are spotted in turn. They will silently creep as close to their prey as they can, sometimes staying in the forest edge during this process, and then break into a run. Females can run at speeds of up to twenty miles per hour for mid-distances. If they cannot outrun their prey in the initial charge, they will keep up the hunt until they have enough stored power to strike their prey down from a distance.

Eastern luxray are reasonably popular as pets due to their exaggerated facial expressions, and escaped individuals have formed charges on the outskirts of Kotobuki City, Atlanta, and several Western European cities.

Northern luxray have thicker coats and are generally larger and lighter, growing up to 1.5 meters at the shoulder. The northern, southern, and western luxray usually live alone, with pairs coming together for around one year to mate and care for their young until they reach their full shinx size. Then the shinx are left to fend on their own. This subspecies lives in the forests of the Amur watershed. All hunting occurs within forests, and despite their size northern luxray are primarily ambush predators and scavengers. Electric vision is helpful for identifying buried pokémon, and their size allows them to scare off many predators from their recent kills. The subspecies is the most popular in zoos due to their size and fearsome appearance, as well as their docile nature and ease of adjusting to captivity.

The southern luxray lives in the rainforests and swamps of Southeastern Asia. They are about 30% smaller than the eastern luxray and have a much thinner, waterproof coat. Thinner coats mean that this subspecies has the least ability to store electricity. Their preferred hunting method is sitting motionless on the edge of cloudy water and waiting for something to swim nearby. Then they will send a quick burst of electricity out to stun their prey before diving in to make the kill with their teeth and claws.

The western luxray is the smallest and most endangered subspecies. They have the fluffiest coat and even more expressive body language than the other subspecies. Large paws help them move in the deserts they inhabit. Small, digging species are their primary prey. Unlike their relatives, western luxray do not usually release their stored energy as electric bolts. Instead, the stored charge is converted into a temporary surge of kinetic energy released in one direction. Western luxray run around looking for prey with their electric vision. When they find a tunnel, they stand above it and send a pulse downward to collapse it. They will then either dig through the rubble to eat the crushed prey, or catch anything they tries to flee the tunnel through the new hole. Come morning, western luxray return to their own burrows and sleep.


	33. Hariyama

**Hariyama (Makuhita)**

Overview

Hariyama were not the first pokémon to be tamed on Alola. They aren't even native to the islands. But heir importation marked the start of training for sports, pokémon battles as an alternative to war, and the island challenge itself.

Hariyama are eager to train, generally submissive, and terrifyingly powerful. For the first time in Alolan history, a pokémon trainer could reliably wield a companion with the strength of two dozen soldiers. Training went from an accessory to hunting, agriculture, or scholarship to a means to political and military power. The island challenge was instituted to present aspiring trainers with a relatively peaceful way to prove themselves to the tapus as potential kahuna material and, later, as a means of replacing the monarch.

Today the political significance has been stripped away from the island challenge and scores of species are routinely trained. Hariyama still remains one of the best choices trainers have available given their relatively modest care requirements, willingness to work, and raw power. They also have very distinct personalities and can make good companions (and a good reason to exercise) long after the island challenge ends.

Physiology

Both makuhita and hariyama are classified as pure fighting-types.

Makuhita are stocky bipeds. Thin, fuzzy fur coats their body. Most of this fur is yellow, but black stripes around the neck and hands are common. The hands have three very short fingers and a thumb and are nearly useless for anything but punches and push-ups. Makuhita generally have red rings on their cheeks and a long tuft of hair on top of their head. They have ear slits, but they are not very good at identifying where a sound is coming from. Much of their body is fat, but they are still far stronger than they look.

Hariyama, by contrast, have virtually no body fat. In fact they have so little that it can cause them health problems (see Illness). Evolution makes them substantially bulkier, but this bulk is almost entirely solid muscle. Their hands are giant and flat with three wide fingers. The hair on the upper half of their body falls out, and their skin is very light grey. A tan plate of armor on their chest helps protect their internal organs, and a bony blue visor on their head protects the brain and outer ears. Hariyama's lower half retains its fur, but replaces the old yellow coat with a blue one. They gain a series of flaps around their waist that help them regulate their internal temperature while exercising.

Hariyama can grow up to 2.5 meters tall and have a mass of 500 kilograms. Hariyama typically live for twelve years in the wild, but can live up to thirty in captivity.

Behavior

Fighting-types tend to be split into two groups. One are naturally powerful pokémon that always act feral, even when raised from birth in captivity. The other are relentlessly focused on improving their body and martial arts skills through training. Hariyama are a quintessential example of a Type II fighting type.

Wild hariyama prefer to form dojos with other Type IIs and humans. Lucario are their preferred pokémon partners in Alola. This partnership instinct is because makuhita can struggle to feed themselves as they are herbivores that lack useful fingers or a prehensile tail and are not tall enough to browse. Absent partners, they typically feed by hitting berry trees until the fruit (or the tree itself) fall down. Then they do push ups to eat the berries off of the ground. This method is inefficient enough that makhuita and hariyama without a mixed-species dojo can spend up to two-thirds of their waking hours eating.

In exchange for the assistance with feeding (and tying their hair), hariyama will use their bulk to scare away any would-be predators. Lucario are skilled and have fearsome ranged attacks but they can struggle against slow, much less kill, very large predators. Hariyama can take on almost any wild pokémon in Alola and overpower them. Only powerful telepaths, large groups, salamence, volcarona, metagross, and particularly clever pokémon stand a chance at defeating a fully grown hariyama in the wild.

Hariyama revel in challenging anything approaching their power. They are known to take on buses, trains, and even airplanes during landing and takeoff. Members of the Melemele dojo routinely pick fights with visiting salamence, who are often quite happy to oblige for the sheer thrill of battle. Hawlucha occasionally visit the western half of the island to test themselves as well. Cameras in the Poni Colosseum have recorded several matches between kommo-o and hariyama with makuhita and jangmo-o sitting in the audience.

Makuhita are less aggressive in finding challengers. They mostly fight within their dojo, although they will defend themselves from anything that attacks them. Some particularly oblivious makuhita on Poni Island have mistakenly attacked exeggutor only to get launched thirty meters back. The exeggutor make no attempt to warn makuhita of their mistake, and have even been seen shuffling into groves and standing dead still whenever makuhita approach.

Husbandry

Makuhita have fairly normal food needs, although they will need their berries handed to them. They should be fed until they refuse food. Mint leaves are a favorite snack of the species. Water bowls should be tall enough for the pokémon to drink out of it mid-push usually isn't an issue but they do learn fastest when trained with something close to what humans use. Small bowls filled with litter or holes in the ground outside do the trick.

The main problem with makuhita training is the training part.

Makuhita rise at dawn and they go to sleep at sunset. Between the two they are almost exclusively concerned with food and exercise. Trainers who want a break can simply give makuhita a berry pile tall enough to eat. On the trail makuhita view hiking and carrying gear as an exercise. They can also be left alone with barbells or a punching bag while their trainer goes about their business.

Ideally, a makuhita trainer will be very fit and capable of exercising alongside their makuhita. Being able to teach the pokémon martial arts moves is the best way to gain their respect. Balancing their strengths and weaknesses, makuhita is the best partner possible on the island challenge for athletic, motivated trainers who want to be the best and are willing to put in the work. Otherwise, they should be avoided in favor of Type I fighting-types like passimian, pancham, crabrawler, and scrafty.

Hariyama are more concerned with showing off their strength than improving it. Unlike makuhita, hariyama are willing to go into pokéballs for several hours a day (and all of the night) if they are routinely given worthy fights. In the absence of high level battles they will need a gym with weights of at least a metric ton. After an island challenge is over hariyama can be safely released on either Poni or Melemele if their trainer is unwilling to make the lifestyle or monetary concessions needed to raise a hariyama.

Illness

Very young makuhita and very old hariyama often develop cancers or respiratory problems. Most of these problems can be easily treated if caught early. The line can also catch and transmit several common diseases in humans, such as influenza.

The main health problem that hariyama suffer from is internal organ damage. Hariyama have very little body fat, relying instead on layers of powerful muscles to protect themselves. When flexed, the muscles form a nigh-unbreakable shield. But if a hariyama is caught off guard with a sufficiently powerful hit to the torso, the shockwave can rupture an organ and potentially kill them. A hariyama should always be made aware that it is about to go into battle and even playful sneak attacks should be avoided.

Evolution

When makuhita are strong enough, experienced enough, and have stored enough food, they will flash evolve. During the lead up to evolution, makuhita drop all training and spend all of their waking hours eating. When the process is complete they will set out on a path of wanton destruction to test their newfound strength. Evolution typically occurs between four and five years of age in the wild, and two to four in captivity.

Trainers wishing to hasten the process should provide their makuhita with plenty of training and interesting fights. For the year after evolution ends the new hariyama will need to be used in several battles a week against worthy opponents. Otherwise they will begin to seek out their own challenges, some of which can be quite costly.

Battle

Hariyama is one of the most physically powerful pokémon in the world. They are also very, very tough and can keep on fighting at full strength for hours. While slow, this seldom matters because eventually a hariyama will land a hit and it is difficult for most pokémon to land meaningful blows on them. They fight mainly with their open palm slaps, shockwaves, and thrown rock attacks. Hariyama have a few other tricks, such as whirlwind and elementally charged punches, but for the most part hariyama does one thing and they do it terrifyingly well. Any team without a solid hariyama counter or a few checks will be crushed by a well-trained hariyama with a competent trainer.

Unfortunately for hariyama their counters abound in the competitive circuits. Although they are not particularly weak to telepathic assaults, hariyama also do not resist them. This makes alakazam hariyama's hardest counter since the psychic-type can hover above shockwaves and teleport away from whirlwinds, thrown rocks, and physical assaults while simultaneously tripping hariyama up with utility moves and hitting them in the brain. Gardevoir, espeon, gothielle, mega slowbro, and mime sr. are not quite as effective but can still usually take down a hariyama.

Floating steel-types and very fast ranged fliers can also put a stop to hariyama. Neither has much to fear from rock attacks (due to natural resistance or speed) and can stay well out of range of physical blows and shockwaves. The fliers are usually strong enough to power through a whirlwind, and the steel-types are too heavy to really care. This makes the relatively common bronzong, skarmory, magnezone, corviknight, vikavolt, yanmega, dragonite, noivern, and talonflame solid counters to hariyama. More exotic picks such as harpyre and metagross are even more effective. Hawlucha has mixed results due to their semi-grounded nature and inability to take a hit but in a pinch can serve as a check.

Quickstall teams can also make hariyama much less useful. They are usually fast enough to outpace hariyama, bulky enough to take the shockwaves or thrown rocks, and tricky enough to slowly wear their enemy down while keeping themselves healthy.

Finally, bulky ghost types such as South Isle decidueye, dusknoir, golurk, cursola, and jellicent can phase through the worst of hariyama's hits while using a variety of tricks to bypass hariyama's natural defenses. These matches tend to be close and hariyama prevails more often than not, but the hariyama's sweep ends very shortly afterwards.

Almost every professional trainer has at least one counter to hariyama at the ready. But a clever hariyama trainer can still play the long game, wear down or take out the checks, and then unleash an unstoppable force at the end. Hariyama can also be played as a mid-game wallbreaker, since they can break down common stall pokémon and allow a teammate to sweep. It is also inadvisable to try and set up a sweep with a pokémon hariyama checks so long as the fighting-type is still reasonably healthy.

If the metagame were any less hostile to hariyama it would be the single most threatening pokémon commonly held by professional trainers. Even as things are hariyama is still one of the biggest threats in the world and skilled professional and amateur trainers should always have a counter plan in mind.

On the island challenge makuhita are effective in battle but require patience. They are reasonably bulky and quite powerful but rather slow. The trick is setting up a situation where the makuhita can get in a solid hit or two. If this is possible they can defeat most young pokémon. If it isn't they will probably be worn down and defeated in the end.

Hariyama's rather limited pool of tricks makes them a good choice for the island challenge. Simple hand slaps with a few rock and seismic attacks to hit distant foes is all hariyama really needs. Be wary of the counters listed above but otherwise hariyama is likely to carry the match.

Acquisition

Makuhita can be found on Route 2 and on the eastern end of Poni. Only makuhita at least one meter tall may be captured. They require a Class I license to capture or purchase.

Hariyama can be found in many of the same places as makuhita. The ones that do not wish to go with a trainer have already been captured by the Melemele Dojo and the Poni National Park rangers. All others are legal catches with a Class III license (purchase requires a Class I, adoption is impossible as unwanted makuhita and hariyama are released to the wild).

Both stages are very insistent upon a proper capture battle. If a trainer cannot overpower them with any single team member the pokémon will refuse to listen to them.

Breeding

Hariyama can be bred in captivity but they strongly prefer being released to the wild to reproduce. The species can form emotional attachments to fighting-types of any gender. However, only heterosexual pairings with other hariyama, machamp, or primeape will produce offspring. Mating tends to happen after a hariyama's tenth birthday but they reach sexual maturity upon evolution. Older hariyama often settle down, have kids, and devote the rest of their lives to training makuhita.

Subspecies

The Alolan hariyama is slightly taller and substantially heavier than the Asian hariyama. This is due to the abundance of food in Alola.

Asian hariyama live in the temperate portion of Asia's Pacific coast, from central China to the Korean peninsula and Japanese isles. They typically live in caves and only leave to eat. Alolan hariyama sometimes take shelter in caves from bad storms but otherwise avoid them. There is no consensus on why Asian hariyama prefer to live underground when they are large herbivores that need to spend several hours a day grazing.


	34. Smeargle

**Smeargle**

Overview

Neanderthal settlements in Southwestern Europe tend to have smeargle bones or objects stained in smeargle ink nearby. In many areas, early cave paintings are right next to ancient smeargle marks. Ancient kingdoms the world over prized smeargle for their dyes, which are vibrant, easily produced, and capable of lasting for millennia under the right conditions. Kamehameha the Great imported smeargle to the islands to paint the new capitol city of Hau'oli when Ihā Palace was deemed too traditional for the new era.

Many of those smeargles' descendants now live on Melemele. While technically invasive, the DNR allows them to stay as a tourist attraction and force for peace among wild pokémon. Capture by trainers with an artistic bent keeps the population in check.

Smeargle is not useful in a fight unless very well trained. Still, they are creative and affectionate companions for trainers concerned with their future after the island challenge ends.

Physiology

Smeargle is classified as a pure normal-type. They are capable of wielding every wavelength of the elemental spectrum in a way that only eevee, ditto, and the recently created silvally can begin to match.

While they are sometimes mistaken for canines, smeargle are actually feliforms. Gumshoos is their closest relative in Alola. Smeargle have long and lithe bodies and large paws, eyes, and ears. Their tongue is rather long and is often left hanging out of their mouth. This also helps them regulate their internal temperature. A floppy cap of skin and fur adorns their head. There is not a scientific consensus on what purpose, if any, the cap serves. Their fur is short and white except for brown patches on the ears and around the eyes. Smeargle also have brown bands above their paws; the exact number and width of these bands varies by individual.

The species is most famous for their ink secretions. Smeargle have long prehensile tails with a tuft of fur and an ink gland on the end. The color of the ink varies by the individual and the shade varies with diet, mood, exhaustion, and the solar and lunar cycles. This ink is resistant to almost everything except for smeargle's saliva. Sanding the surface, extreme high and low temperatures, and some corrosive attacks will also work in a pinch.

Smeargle can reach heights of 1.3 meters and masses of 13 kilograms. They live for up to seven years in the wild and ten in captivity.

Behavior

Smeargle ink has mild psychoactive effects until it dries. Prolonged exposure can cause hallucinations, hunger, decreased aggression, and bursts of inspiration that are quickly forgotten. The species is not entirely immune to the effects of their own ink; smeargle with amputated or dried tails (see Illness) display far fewer typical signs of smeargle ink exposure.

Smeargle palettes have a distinctive territory map. There will be a center area where socialization freely happens, disputes are resolved, and collaborative art projects are undertaken. Radiating out from this hub are various wedge-shaped territories that grow wider the farther they are from the center. Each wedge is occupied by a single smeargle or a female and her young offspring (see Breeding). The edges of each territory are full of elaborate markings. Every smeargle uses thirty to one hundred individual marking patterns. Over 12,000 patterns have been identified worldwide. No two smeargle have been found with the same set. Smeargle are quite aggressive towards other conspecifics entering their territory but are quite friendly with their neighbors in the center.

Smeargle's circadian rhythm changes over the lunar cycle. They are fully diurnal on new moons and fully nocturnal on the nights of full moons. Individuals get about twelve hours of sleep in every 24 hour period regardless of when they get it. If the weather is good all the smeargle in a gallery will convene in the hub on the days of new moons and the nights of full moons to collaborate on elaborate art projects, socialize, court potential mates, and trade objects and art tips. Smeargle with a very close bond (platonic or otherwise) will often ask their friend to place an ink-coated foot on their back as a permanent sign of their bond. When they groom themselves to remove excess paint smeargle very carefully avoid their back. That is washed with water alone.

Because of their ability to track energy patterns as well as their perpetually altered mental state, smeargle are excellent at seeing through lies, illusions, and supernatural activity.

In the wild smeargle tend to be accidental peacekeepers. Their bodies are toxic enough that few predators will bother to eat them. Most moderately intelligent pokémon appreciate the markings they leave across their territory. In turn smeargle eat only plants and the occasional small scavenged carcass and they don't eat enough or breed quickly enough to be a nuisance to other pokémon. Smeargle territories, especially territory edges and the central hub, tend to be home to unusually high amounts of wild pokémon. Predator and prey typically have a truce period during the new and full moon conventions. Several interspecies summits have been seen during these times and violent organized interspecies conflicts are almost non-existent in the places where smeargle are common. Many pokémon will take advantage of the opportunity to trade items with other pokémon and human onlookers as well as to evaluate potential friends, trainers, rivals, and mates.

Husbandry

Despite their general appearance and attitudes smeargle are reasonably intelligent pokémon and should always be treated with a certain amount of dignity. Many have aversions to pet names, strict schedules, or insults. Anything that suggests the pokémon is not viewed as a relative equal can set them off. These triggers can include lies, making important decisions without their consent, forcing them to use a more degrading place for urination and defecation than their trainer uses, excessive amounts of time spent in a pokéball, ignoring their feelings, or routinely being given food that their trainer would never settle for. In short the relationship between a trainer and smeargle is best handled like a relationship between two human friends.

Smeargle make poor partners for dark, fairy, and ghost types because of the tendency of those species to pull pranks and create illusions. Both tend to stress smeargle due to their ability to track energy signatures. While smeargle may have personality clashes with ditto, ditto are excellent for teaching smeargle new moves. Lucario make for very good partners. So long as they each have a personal space to retreat to that they can freely mark up most smeargle will tolerate other conspecifics on the team.

The bulk of smeargle's diet should be made up of berries and vegetables. They will also happily eat meat, but this should not be the core of their diet. Almost all smeargle prefer their meat to be cooked rather than raw. Kibble will be taken as an insult either immediately or when the smeargle realizes that their trainer doesn't and won't eat it.

The species requires relatively little in the way of exercise unless being used as serious battlers. Instead they need time to socialize and practice painting. They prefer artistic trainers who can offer them meaningful advice on their craft but will tolerate any trainer willing to give them reasonable respect, independence, and praise. Trainers should be mindful of the pokémon's rotating circadian rhythm. They should also accept that if easels and canvas are not provided smeargle will mark up walls.

Illness

Smeargle can share diseases with gumshoos and several other mammals. They should receive a full round of vaccinations within one or two months of capture or within six months of birth. It helps to explain to the pokémon what is going to happen in advance as randomly suffering a series of seemingly unprovoked attacks can make smeargle distrust their trainer and medical professionals.

Ink well problems are a set of maladies that are unique to smeargle. These can range from amputated tails to frequent muscle spasms or seizures to heavy or very low ink flow. All of these problems have different causes and treatments. Some will result in a permanent loss or impairment of painting ability. These pokémon will require substantial emotional support and assistance in learning how to paint with brushes meant for humans. Smeargle unable to create anything at all will quickly become depressed and stop eating.

Evolution

N/A

Battle

Smeargle can use nearly every pokémon technique, even those that rely on unique anatomical structures, by copying the elemental patterns. The species is also intelligent enough to learn about one new attack every month. Some older smeargle can use over 100 moves which gives them one of the largest effective movepools of any pokémon.

Unfortunately, just because smeargle can use an attack does not mean they can use it well. They are incredibly frail, have less physical strength than a yungoos, and their elemental wells are equally unimpressive. The species is reasonably agile but even their speed is below average in competitive circuits.

In the past smeargle was almost always a lead that used a technique to incapacitate an opponent for a long period of time and then used a series of powerful boosting moves while the opponent was down. When the switch clock ran smeargle would then baton pass the boosts to either another member of a baton pass chain or to a sweeper capable of using them well.

After the Global Battle Federation banned baton pass chains and several other leagues followed, smeargle's typical strategy changed. Now they are mostly used to incapacitate the opposing lead, set up a full suite of arena hazards and effects, and eventually get knocked out. Smeargle teams can effectively start with the terrain in their favor at the cost of fighting with five pokémon.

No ranked trainer currently uses a smeargle. Even in their one good role some pokémon manage to prevent smeargle from setting up. A handful can not only block smeargle but use them as set up bait. Even though smeargle can unleash hydro cannons, frenzy plants, and blast burns, the species' limited elemental well means that they hit about as hard as a water gun, leafage, and ember from any other competitive pokémon.

Smeargle fare worse on the island challenge than in competitive circuits. The average trainer will be able to teach their pokémon six to twelve moves during the full course of the challenge. Other common utility pokémon such as forretress, blissey, toxapex, and gengar, are able to learn as many or more utility moves while also being powerful or bulky. Early on, smeargle can use a myriad of super effective attacks and their not-yet-outclassed offensive stats to win battles. By the middle of the second island smeargle will be near deadweight.

Acquisition

Smeargle can be adopted, captured, or purchased with a Class I license.

Because of their roles as a keystone of the Route 2 environment and tourist attraction there are limits on the species capture. Any wild smeargle must come willingly with a trainer. A Pokémon Center nurse will need to verify that the capture was consensual within thirty days or the capture will automatically be classified as illegal. There is a healthy captive breeding program of smeargle and importation is legal so adoption usually the better option. Wild specimens can be most easily convinced to follow by showing them your own art. Other smeargle simply want an opportunity to see new sights and learn new moves and will actively seek out trainers. Smeargle not only don't require a battle to test their prospective trainer but get angry when a potential friend chooses to beat them up as an apparent show of superiority and a threat against future misbehavior.

Capture of all wild pokémon is forbidden during smeargle conventions and in the three hours before and after them.

Breeding

In the wild courtship can go on for several years or several minutes before any mating occurs. Sometimes both parents help raise the child and sometimes the male leaves immediately after conception. Relationships can last anywhere from a few days to the full adult life of both partners. Smeargle are about as likely to form homosexual bonds as heterosexual ones, although only heterosexual unions produce offspring. Most wild smeargle will engage in both types of partnerships in their lives.

Smeargle pregnancies last two to four months and result in a single child. The child undergoes a rite of passage at their thirteenth convention at which point they leave their mother and take their own territory.

Because smeargle are free spirits with often brief, passionate relationships and specific preferences, it is difficult to breed smeargle in captivity unless a full palette is held in a large territory that mimics natural conditions. There is no farm in Alola that currently breeds smeargle, but there are several dozen throughout the world.

Subspecies

N/A


	35. Crabominable

**Crabrawler (Crabominable)**

Overview

When measured from base to peak Mt. Lanakila is the largest mountain on Earth. It is also the only mountain with year-round snow cover in Oceania, courtesy of the ninetales that call it home. This unique environment—a tall, frozen mountain in the middle of tropical lowland—provides a home for many species not found elsewhere in Alola as well as two species and two subspecies of pokémon that are not found anywhere else on Earth. Crabominable is uniquely adapted to the Lanakila ecosystem. They begin life as a small herbivorous species that hugs the warm shores before some move up to hunt in the perpetual cold.

Crabrawler are not particularly intelligent or affectionate. Evolution does little to fix these problems. They are powerful, easy to care for, and adjust well to captivity. At the end of a challenge, they can be taken to the nearest berry tree and released with little fanfare. For trainers who want a fighting-type powerhouse without a constant need to train or an expectation of lifelong friendship, crabrawler is as good a pokémon as any.

Physiology

Crabrawler are classified as pure fighting-types. Crabominable are dual ice- and fighting-types.

The hardened carapace of crabrawler is purple. They have four long, spindly legs with hook-like hairs at the end. Shortly after molting (see Evolution), crabrawler are light tan in color. Two of crabrawler's legs are shorter and have very large pincers at the end. Unlike other crustacean pokémon, these pincers are not primarily used for crushing objects. Instead, crabrawler punches things. Actual gripping attacks are rare and their crushing strength is unimpressive. Crabrawler have a long, sharp spine on top of their head that makes them harder to attack from above.

The species has crude lungs instead of gills. They are unable to breathe in water after their planktonic stage (see Breeding).

Crabominable tend to be far bulkier than their preevolution. Their legs remain about the same total length but are no longer spindly on their form. This makes crabominable rather slow. Thick, wooly hair covers crabominable's entire body. The hook-like hairs used for climbing are replaced, as there are very few trees. The horn on top of their head is replaced by tufts of blond fur. When crabominable is buried, this fur resembles a lichen patch. Finally, crabominable have massive pincers that are no longer capable of gripping anything at all. They are spectacularly effective blunt instruments and crabominable can break even sandslash armor in a few solid hits. The pincers can be fired off in an explosive blast if needed but this leaves the crabominable down a pincer and is rarely done in the wild.

Crabrawler grow up to one meter across and can weigh up to 20 kilograms. They typically live for eighty years in the wild. Crabominable can grow up to two meters across and weigh up to 55 kilograms. They can live for over a century.

Behavior

Crabrawler are primarily herbivorous. They climb up berry and coconut trees, get a solid grip with their legs, and then punch the trunk until the food they want falls down. If coconuts are not shattered on impact the crabrawler will punch it until it bursts. Once the fruit has been cracked or splattered crabrawler will lower their mouth to the ground and eat. Crabrawler don't care about picking up grass or sand alongside the berry flesh and juice; any minerals that aren't needed for shell growth will be harmlessly excreted.

Crabrawler will fiercely defend any food they knock down, even taking on far stronger birds in defense of what is rightfully theirs. This extends to humans; if a berry has fallen from a tree near the coast, it's a good bet that taking it will trigger a crabrawler attack. Unless provoked or feeding, crabrawler are relatively calm and will seldom initiate hostilities. When attacked, crabrawler prefer to defend themselves with a barrage of quick, untrained punches. If this does not succeed they will attempt trickery to make an escape (see Illness).

During low tides crabrawler burrow into the sand and sleep. When the tide comes in crabrawler leave their nests en masse to feed. A single beach can house hundreds or crabrawler. Despite living in close quarters crabrawler are not particularly social creatures and only interact to mate or fight over territory.

Crabominable are primarily carnivorous. While they can eat plants in captivity (see Husbandry), they have never been observed eating any in the wild. Crabominable's ice-type attacks are the product of endothermic reactions inside of their gut. These attacks, along with their fur, keep crabominable warm in even the harshest of conditions. This allows them to hunt ice-type pokémon with relatively little risk of harm. Crabominable are primarily ambush predators that disguise themselves as a lichen before lashing out with one or two powerful hits. Alternatively, they will leave half a kill and bury themselves nearby to attract other carnivores. Sandslash, weavile, and snorunt are their primary prey. They may attack ninetales and vulpix but this has never been observed. Video evidence suggests that crabominable have begun to hunt vanilluxe.

Outside of their feeding habits very little is known about wild crabominable. The Alolan monarchs and Ula'Ula kahunas have historically prevented scientific studies on the mountain. Even after the construction of the Alolan Pokémon League interference from ninetales and vanilluxe has made observations difficult.

Husbandry

Crabrawler spend almost all of their days buried or searching for food. This makes them very tolerant of pokéballs. So long as they are adequately fed they are willing to spend almost all of their time in one. Net balls are preferable although nest balls and regular pokéballs are also fine. They should be let out of their balls to eat, defecate, and explore for at least a half hour a day.

While exploring, crabrawler will often try to climb things. If something resembles a coconut or fruit, they may try to punch it until it breaks. Crabrawler almost universally believe that vases look like coconuts. Most believe the same about lamps and light bulbs.

Crabrawler cannot technically be housebroken but they generally prefer to defecate on wood shavings, grass, mulch, or damp sand. If there is only one area around that fits the description they will conduct their business there.

Crabrawler, but not crabominable, get stand-offish around birds. Type I fighting-types like hariyama, machamp, and lucario will often grow frustrated with crabrawler's refusal to discipline themselves or train in a martial art. Sometimes crabrawler will start fights with crawdaunt, araquanid, and ariados. Crabominable may view ice-type teammates as food and try to eat them. Conversely, they are very wary around canines.

Crabrawler should be fed a fruit-rich diet with mice or small fish occasionally thrown in as treats. They will need water bowls to drink from. Because they lack gills and are relatively dense crabrawler cannot swim nor walk along the bottom of a pool for long. All water dishes should be shallow.

Crabominable are primarily carnivorous in the wild but they can be fed a fruit-heavy diet in captivity with few apparent side effects. They can drink water from dishes but they prefer getting it from ice crystals or snow. Evolution makes them more curious and they will appreciate a chance to hide in a box or bury under dirt or blankets while watching others go by. The trainer should always be at the ready to withdraw the crabominable if anything gets too close. Even the best trained crabominable will seldom pass up a tasty meal that walks right by them. Crabominable are very fond of back rubs; crabrawler are not. The same goes for cuddling with a known and trusted human.

Crabominable should either have an ice-specific pokéball or a cold place they can retreat to at least once a day. A crabominable kept in a blizzard ball will only need two to three hours a day outside of it.

Illness

Most crabs foam at the mouth as a means of regulating their internal salinity. Crabrawler don't have to worry about that but they still foam. This is their means of producing relatively weak bubble attacks that can serve as a distraction for an escape. It can also intimidate predatory mammals away out of fear that their would-be prey has rabies. Crabrawler are incapable of developing rabies. Foaming is a normal behavior and nothing that a veterinarian needs to be consulted about.

The overwhelming majority of health problems occur during molting. Very young crabrawler can shed their shell in favor of a new one once a week. For the first year of their life on land crabrawler don't even bother to grow a hard shell between molts and instead move between gastropod shells and other found objects. During molting wild crabrawler burrow to a point just above the water table and stay there for several days until their new shell hardens. In captivity crabrawler should be kept in one place and not withdrawn into their pokéball during the process. Ideally they should be given a dark and cramped place to hide. Until the process is complete crabrawler are soft and very vulnerable to injury. Wounds that ordinarily wouldn't be felt can be fatal in this state.

As they grow older crabrawler molt less frequently but each molt gets more dangerous. Getting out of their shell and growing a new one is increasingly energy expensive and eventually crabrawler can have a three week softshell period during which they will have to go out and hunt for food. In captivity this danger is somewhat alleviated.

Crabrawler never really stop growing, although their molting becomes less frequent as they age. They will eat everything they can and well-fed crabrawler will grow (and die) faster. Trainers who don't intend to evolve their crabrawler should limit their pokémon to one-fifth of their body weight a day.

Crabominable don't usually molt unless their carapace is badly damaged. Their molts can take a month, during which they will almost certainly have to hunt to get enough nutrients to build the new carapace. Captive crabominable usually survive but the process is best handled under inpatient veterinary care.

Evolution

There is a healthy amount of debate as to whether crabrawler should be classified as a second-stage pokémon. Their larval form is planktonic and even after emerging from the water young crabrawler have very different behaviors than adult crabrawler (see Breeding). The official stance of the USDA at this point is that crabrawler is the first stage of a two-stage line as tiny planktonic forms are not counted as proper evolutionary stages and juvenile crabrawler look very similar to adult crabrawler.

Crabrawler on Melemele, Akala, and Poni Island will almost never evolve. On Ula'Ula crabrawler approaching adulthood will begin to migrate towards Mt. Lanakila. They will spend a few weeks foraging near the base, usually in Ula'Ula Meadow, before they begin their ascent. Evolution is triggered by a combination of cold and elevation. Stimulating it in a lab requires thinning the air as well as cooling it.

On top of the mountain crabrawler will retreat into one of Lanakila's slightly warmer caves, tuck themselves into an isolated, dark corner, and begin to molt. They typically molt four times in rapid succession, growing larger with each stage. At the end of the final molt the newly evolved crabominable will exit the caves and begin hunting.

Trainers who wish to evolve their crabrawler are best off going up Lanakila with their crabrawler out of its pokéball. The Pokémon League Center has an area devoted to evolving crabrawler. Trainers who completed their island challenge within the last year may use the facilities once free of charge.

Mt. Lanakila is the most dangerous location in Alola due to difficult weather and terrain and an abundance of pokémon strong enough to deal with those obstacles. The mountain is currently infested with vanilluxe who go out of their way to kill vulnerable humans. Weavile won't hesitate to finish off a badly injured human or pokémon. Crabominable themselves can and will kill anything that gets too close to them. Ninetales will seldom kill a human outright but they will stir up the weather to make further progress impossible and then escort the trainer down when they finally give in and decide to leave.

Even with marked paths, summitting Mt. Lanakila on foot is an incredibly dangerous endeavor. Only trainers who have completed an island challenge or otherwise earned the permission of all four kahunas are permitted to attempt it.

For unknown reasons crabrawler taken up the lift or flown up to the summit will not begin to evolve.

Battle

Neither crabrawler nor crabominable sees any use in professional battling. Both are strong, but they are relatively slow and undisciplined. Crabominable has modest bulk; crabrawler is very frail. When options like machamp and hariyama exist, it's difficult to justify using crabominable. Theoretically the ice crab has a niche as a hail-team counter, but hail teams have never been common enough to dedicate an entire team slot to dealing with them.

Ice-types in general are rare in Alola as most are restricted to the inhospitable Mt. Lanakila. Crabominable's main advantage over hariyama, machamp, and other Type I fighting-types is simply that they require almost nothing in the way of training. Put them in front of a target and they know what to do. While they are not as strong as a well-trained machamp or hariyama, they are stronger than either of the two untrained. They are also easier to train than other Type II fighting types.

Most trainers on an island challenge will be using crabrawler, and not crabominable, until at least the Elite Four. While crabominable are bulky and powerful enough to hold up until the very end of the challenge, crabrawler start running into serious problems on the second island. By the end of the third they will be near deadweight. They can be taught some useful moves, such as thunder punch, power-up-punch, and rock-type attacks, but they will never hone their technique in the same way that Type I fighting types can. The specie's supporting movepool and willingness to use it are both limited.

Acquisition

Aside from the handful of cities and resorts that bother to try and keep them off the beaches, crabrawler can be found on almost all of Alola's shores. As the tide starts coming in camp out near a berry or coconut tree near the coast. A crabrawler will probably come. They can be captured or purchased with a Class I license. Alolan shelters usually release crabrawler unless they are seriously injured; adoptions are handled on a case by case basis.

After a quick proving battle and a few days with a steady provision of food, water, and shelter crabrawler are usually bonded enough to listen to orders. It can take them a few days to make a connection between an attack and its name, and a few more to actually use the attack their trainer tells them to.

Crabominable capture is illegal due to a lack of information on how many exist in the wild and what impact recent disturbances on Mt. Lanakila have had on the species. They can be purchased with a Class II license.

Breeding

Crabrawler mate in late September. After the eggs are fertilized females wade into the water and release their clutch before moving back onto land. The eggs hatch after one to two weeks into microscopic zooplankton. If the plankton approach a shore after a ninety day period they will begin to grow and develop into crabrawler about the size of a grain of sand. The new crabrawler will swim towards the land. Once beached, it will begin to rapidly grow and develop lungs. They are typically thirty centimeters across within five months. Crabrawler do not reach their maximum size or reproductive maturity until they are at least thirty years old.

Crabominable do reproduce. Occasionally a female can be seen coming down to the surface, dozens of juveniles about twenty centimeters across clinging to her body. She deposits them and heads back up the mountain. At the time of deposit, the juveniles have a phenotype and genotype identical to their crabrawler-born peers. It is not known how crabrawler mate or raise young.

Crabmominable have never been successfully bred in captivity. While crabrawler have been, it is best left to biologists in laboratory settings.

Subspecies

There is one species of crabrawler that ranges from the southeastern coast of Africa to coastal India to northern Australia to Alola. They live anywhere in the Indo-Pacific with large fruit-bearing trees near the coast. There are no subspecies documented.

All crabrawler have the potential to evolve into crabominable. This has been shown with crabrawler from Madagascar and Australia transplanted to Ula'Ula. The crabs quickly understood what they needed to do and began to climb the mountain after a few weeks of gorging themselves. Mt. Lanakila is the only place with the right conditions (a permanently snow-capped mountain within five kilometers of a tropical coast) to trigger evolution.


	36. Gengar

**Gengar (Gastly, Haunter)**

Overview

Throughout history ghost pokémon have been treated with a mix of fear and reverence. Gengar are the most common ghost worldwide and worldwide they have inspired far more fear than reverence. They have been historically seen as malevolent tricksters that sometimes form partnerships of convenience with human trainers. Now there is an increasingly popular theory that gengar may have complex emotional lives and a tragic misunderstanding of their circumstances.

This does not make them harmless.

Many trainers mistake "common" with "easy to train." While often true, this is not the case for gengar. Trainers who want to be eased into ghost husbandry are advised to start with another, calmer species. However, gengar are one of the most powerful ghosts in Alola and they can form close bonds with their trainer under the right circumstances. This makes them a good pokémon for trainers confident in their ability to handle phantoms and intent on dominating the battlefield.

Physiology

All stages of the evolutionary line are dual ghost- and poison-types.

Gastly are primarily formed from purple-grey spectral fog. Their most common form is a sphere surrounded by a loose halo of gas. Large eyes and a mouth with fangs adorn the face. No part of their body is solid and gastly are perfectly capable of altering their apparent features. Unlike most spectral fog, gastly bodies are very toxic. Inhaling just a few grams can kill a human. The fog burns and corrodes any living tissue that it touches. Gastly have relatively little control over their bodies and they can be disrupted by a stiff breeze (see Illness). While they can move at speeds of up to five meters per second if given time to compose themselves beforehand they seldom move faster than two to three meters per second in the wild.

The species does not need to be visible, or even tangible, on the physical plane. They can shift into another realm and move through it to bypass solid barriers at the cost of being temporarily unable to affect the world. It takes them several seconds to move between planes.

Haunter are far more condensed than gastly and typically form a large, homogenous body with only a small gaseous tail. Some haunter form two separate hands connected to their body by thin, almost invisible strands of spectral fog. Others incorporate their hands into their body. Haunter typically have a gaping toothless mouth. Their tongue does not exist when not in use and is only formed as needed. Licks can inflict either the usual chemical burns of the spectral fog or different effects altogether such as paralysis, sleep, seizures, and even encasement in a thin layer of ice.

While gengar appear smaller than haunter they are actually far heavier. Most gengar have a large ovular torso with small, stubby limbs extending from it. There are usually spiky tufts on top as well. Most of the face is comprised of red eyes and a wide mouth with white teeth in it. These teeth are not actually solid, just illusions designed to intimidate their victims. In fact, no part of gengar is solid; they are just very dense orbs of gas. This density makes them very fast, capable of reaching speeds up to thirty meters per second in pure darkness and ten meters per second under natural moonlight. It also grants them a high resistance to wind. Curiously, it also seems to make them weak to light. Gengar move slower and appear less capable of using attacks under lighting more intense than the average streetlight. Under very bright light they fade out of the physical plane entirely, only to fade back in the same place when darkness returns.

Gengar are typically about 1.5 meters tall, but their height can vary considerably. The mass of a healthy, fully developed gengar is exactly 40.61 kilograms.

Behavior

All stages of the line are animivorous. That is, they feed upon emotions in particular and mental health more generally. They have been documented feeding upon many intelligent species but they have a strong preference towards feeding on humans. For gastly and haunter these feedings usually take the form of repeated and escalating harassment, starting out with objects moved around and soft voices at night and escalating into potentially lethal pranks. Any fear they evoke is physically and psychologically draining and a particularly severe haunting can potentially render the victim comatose. At that point the pokémon will move on to a nearby victim. While the early stages are capable of living out on the streets, both strongly prefer residing inside of buildings to shut out the wind.

Gengar are more aggressive hunters, albeit less committed ones. They prefer to roam city streets at night, making shadows move and sending chills through the air. When exposed to enough fear they can create elaborate illusions and gain insights into their victim's memories and psyche. They seldom stick with one victim for long, and their hauntings are usually less fatal than their preevolutions with rare but very notable exceptions (see Breeding).

During the day all stages of the line typically fade out of the physical plane. Only dimension-disrupting attacks or very vulnerable prey will bring them out.

Husbandry

All stages must be handled differently as they have different behaviors and mindsets. In general, they are best held in dusk balls and are fine staying inside of them during the day. The pokémon will get upset and pull increasingly mean-spirited pranks if confined for most of the night.

Gastly are often confused, violent, and obsessed with hunting. Trainers will either need to battle with them near-constantly or accept that some of the feeding will be at their own expense. There should be a powerful ghost- or dark-type present to keep them in line should they act up. Flying-types and pokémon that can generate strong shockwaves or gusts of wind can also do the trick. Even when well-fed, gastly will habitually pull pranks on their trainer.

Haunter are the calmest stage. If a trainer puts up with them for an extended period of time as a gastly the pokémon will often gain sympathy for their trainer and obey commands even without deterrents. Wild-caught haunter or those raised by another human tend to be more apathetic towards their trainer. Hunting is done only for food. They will often, but not always, leave their trainer alone so long as they are battled with enough to be well-fed. Haunter are also capable of feeding upon positive emotions and avoiding the need to battle altogether, but this can only be done with trainers they share a close bond with. This is complicated by haunter's incredible jealousy: even if they are fond of their trainer, they will attempt to sabotage all of their close relationships with intelligent pokémon and other humans.

Gengar are the most intelligent and self-aware stage of the evolutionary line. This does not inherently make them easier or harder to train. If raised from a gastly and treated well throughout their more unruly formative years, gengar can be very protective of their trainer and feed almost entirely off of the positive emotions generated by the partnership. They are also capable of scanning memories to quickly learn the human language in full and then use illusions to speak. Gengar have human comparable intelligence and are generally capable of being treated as a close human friend.

If gengar evolves and does not yet have a close bond with their trainer, the situation is more complicated. Gengar inherently yearn for close relationships and purpose; being deprived of them makes them desperate. They may engage in unhealthy behaviors such as stalking, continuing harassment, and even murder in an attempt to gain their trainer's affections. Deterrent pokémon will be necessary in this case, although violent punishments can cause gengar to escalate. It is far more difficult to overpower a gengar than a gastly. Patient demonstration of healthy relationship skills and the understated punishment of misbehavior are the best way to earn a gengar's trust.

The pokémon can't be safely touched without an airtight inorganic suit. Trainers who intend to have a haunter or gengar long-term should invest in such a suit because all stages can be very affectionate. A chronic lack of physical affection will remind them of their condition and send them into rages. Gengar do not sleep in the same way that most pokémon do but they do go inactive during the day. They produce no physical waste.

Illness

Because they usually feed on negative emotions gastly are at low risk of contracting most ghost illnesses. Their body can be torn apart, but given enough time in their alternate world they will pull themselves together as if nothing had happened.

Haunter and gengar often suffer from illnesses, especially in captivity. Aminivores that feed on positive emotions and relationships can be seriously affected by spectral diseases. These are usually triggered by strong negative memories or neuroses. Gengar are capable of digesting these memories easily enough, but too much negative energy can make the positive feelings around it toxic.

Ghost sicknesses are strange and best treated by a specialist in the field. Any prolonged change in physical structure or behavior that appears to distress the pokémon is an illness. These are typically not subtle changes and can include liquidification, time loops, an inability to control their own movements, prolonged periods of stillness, radical changes in behavior, sudden and apparently unprovoked aggression, and clear facial deformities. These symptoms typically will not go away on their own, and even cured illnesses will almost always resurface if the emotional damage in their partner is not fixed.

Gengar with a meaningful connection to a human partner will usually pass on when their trainer does. The species does not fear their own mortality and most channelers describe gengar as wishing to move on eventually but in no rush to do so.

Evolution

Ghosts are shrouded in superstition and myth. Even most of the Ghost Studies literature is working through old folklore in the closest thing possible to controlled experiments. Several prominent scholars are channelers. The chair of Goldenrod University's ghost studies department is even a ghost-type pokémon herself.

The current consensus is that some, but not all, ghosts are formed when a human or pokémon dies. Whether the new ghost is the old being, some psychic echo of the original, or just a creature that comes out of dormancy after a death is very unclear. Some of the more philosophical researchers believe that there is no difference at all between the three so long as the new ghost believes itself to be the old person.

Gastly are formed from human deaths. Gengar typically believe themselves to be the deceased person in a new form. Most of the evolutionary process is about remembering and accepting who they are and what happened to them.

Newly formed gastly are emotionally chaotic and run entirely on impulse and spite. The rare flashes of memory they do get just make them angrier and more confused. Gastly are best treated as toddlers. They are still figuring out how their body works and they have very limited self-awareness and higher brain functions. While drawn to humans for food and perhaps some vague glimmer of recognition, even channelers and psychics capable of speaking with them describe their thoughts as rather inhuman.

After a certain amount of feeding, gastly begin to grow heavier and gain better control over their form. They typically switch shape from a cloud of gas to the typical haunter's form almost instantly, but they will take several more months to refine the details and grow steadily larger.

Haunter begin to remember things. At first these memories have almost no impact on their behavior outside of drawing them closer to familiar places and people. As they develop, haunter become progressively more distressed by the clash between their current parasitic existence and decidedly inhuman form and their steadily resurfacing human psyche. Haunter become desperate for affection and validation and will seek out humans for more than food.

This ends in one of two ways. If haunter have a stable emotional outlet and a human willing to treat them as a friend, they can become a loyal shadow and life partner and reach some measure of inner peace about their situation.

Alternatively, humans react to them the same way they always have: fear and disgust. After all, haunter still need to feed and their hauntings are decidedly unpleasant. Their possible victims have very good reason to shun haunter away. Even sympathetic people have to deal with haunter being possessive, violent, and unable to fully comprehend their emotions. Combined with their need to feed and toxic body, even the most patient people can leave the haunter or be killed (or both). Now fully convinced they are unlovable and overwhelmed by feelings they cannot control, haunter reach a breaking point and develop a deep loathing for all humans.

Either scenario triggers evolution. The new gengar will grow steadily heavier and more dexterous until they reach their final weight and shape. Gengar set out to either terrorize the world that let them die and kicked them while they're down or to protect the human who saved them such afate

Because they do not pass until they accept their situation, malevolent gengar tend to roam the world until someone finally manages to reach them. It is not impossible to redeem a gengar that has grown to hate humans, but doing so requires steadily negotiating with a powerful and hostile party. It is not recommended for anyone but experts in psychology and ghost pokémon.

Gengar are capable of mega evolution. In this stage the pokémon tends to revert to a similar body shape to a haunter while gaining a prominent third eye on their forehead. Mega gengar has some ability to drag their opponents partially into another plane and prevent withdrawal. Even moreso than most mega forms, gengar's mega evolution very rapidly drains the spirit of their trainer. Total loss of emotion for several days after mega evolving is common. At least one trainer never recovered at all. While trapping is an extremely powerful tool in battle few trainers are willing to risk permanent mental damage for a slight edge in battle.

Gigantamax gengar takes a form similar to guzzlord with a giant body composed almost entirely of an open mouth. These gengar have learned from the mega gengar across the channel how to pin opponents in place. While only possible in Galar, gengar have become a mainstay in the region's league.

Battle

Gengar are glass cannons on the competitive circuits. They are reasonably powerful and very fast. More importantly, they have many disruptive tricks at their disposal and a high enough intelligence to learn several of them. This forces opponents to think quickly on their feet as offensive attacks, debilitating status conditions, or even perish song or destiny bond are thrown at them. However, one good hit will bring all but the strongest of gengar down. They are slower under bright, meaning that most trainers will not use one during outdoor daytime matches.

Three of the Top 100 trainers use one on their main team. Almost all ghost specialists have one. They fit best on hyper offensive teams, but perish trapping and destiny bond allow them to act as revenge killers on stall teams.

Gengar are very good on the island challenge. While trainers will not have enough time to teach their pokémon every trick they can learn, just a few can force an opponent to guess well or face the consequences.

Defensively, all stages of the line benefit from being incorporeal. Most attacks that rely upon precision or power instead of elemental energy will pass harmlessly through incorporeal fog. Almost all contact attacks on gengar, even if technically super effective, are likely to leave the attacker in worse shape than the attacked after chemical burns take their toll.

Powerful elemental projectiles of any kind can seriously hurt gengar, but at the amateur level it's usually best to exploit a weakness. All stages of the line hate telepathic damage as it hits their already fragile and confused psyche. Mud or fine sand particulates can get stuck in their bodies and take a moment to filter out. Until cleared, debris inside of the fog substantially slows the pokémon down. This is not a common weakness for ghosts and appears to be related to the toxic nature of gengar's fog. Attacks that manipulate shadows, light, or spectral fog can make it much harder for gengar to remain tangible. Strong wind and shockwave attacks can also take out a gastly in a hit or two, although powerful lights affect them a little less.

Gengar are capable of fading out of the physical plane to avoid all damage. This is allowed in most professional leagues as it gives the opponent a chance to set up without any fear of retaliation. Most amateur leagues, including Alola's, ban fading out as comparatively few amateur pokémon have setup moves.

Good partners for gengar can dim sunlight. They fit well onto rain, hail, and sand teams. Gastly struggle to keep up in any weather but harsh sunlight, which they are often very reluctant to battle in.

Acquisition

Gastly can be captured, adopted, or purchased with a Class IV license. Haunter can be obtained with a Class III license. Gengar require a Class V license to possess without the gengar's consent. With consent they only require a Class III license.

Gengar, like most ghosts, are attracted to graveyards and other places that are tied to death. They can often be seen frequenting Hau'oli Graveyard, Memorial Hill, or the ruins of Tapu Village at night. Gastly and haunter will usually take shelter in residences close to their main territory. Gengar prefer to roam the nearby city streets when not visiting the graveyards at the core of their range. No evolutionary stage is visible during the day.

Breeding

Gengar do not breed. Some human deaths, for reasons currently unknown, produce a new gastly. Folklore and recent history suggest that gastly are most common following mass tragedies involving the air such as towns choked by volcanoes or smoke, tornadoes, hypothermia or heatstroke, the rampages of flying-type legendaries, or the use of chemical weapons on soldiers or civilians.

Some haunter and gengar in the throes of deep loneliness and emotional pain come to believe that killing another human will create a new partner who understands their pain.

This is not the case.

Subspecies

None known


	37. Drifblim

**Drifblim (Drifloon)**

Overview

Ghosts are often thought of as being tricksters at best and demonic at worst. Many ghost-types do come off like this, at least to humans unused to dealing with them. Despite being deeply tied to legends about ferrying off dead souls and living children, drifblim mostly avert the stereotype. They are actually fairly sweet and playful pokémon, albeit ones with some bizarre obsessions. The balloons are strongly recommended as a first step into the strange realm of phantom husbandry.

Physiology

Both stages are classified as dual ghost- and flying-types.

The bulk of drifloon's body is a purple orb. The orb is hollow with the inside filled with a mix of spectral fog and normal gasses. The exterior is only about one centimeter thick, but only very sharp blades and very powerful attacks can outright puncture a drifloon. The rest will simply cause drifloon to be pushed back. This is because the exterior layer is made of very condensed spectral fog that acts as both a solid and a gas at different times.

Drifloon have two small black eyes and a yellow "X" on their face. The eyes do appear to be functional; the X is not a mouth and serves no apparent purpose. A small mass of white fog tops the orb. The fog is known to change shape and billow in the wind. The bottom of the orb has a small purple crown on it. Extending from the crown are two very thin but deceptively strong arms with small yellow hands at the end of them.

Drifblim are substantially larger than their preevolution. The bottom third of their orb is also a much lighter shade of purple, with eight small petal-shaped markings at the edge of the light and dark areas. Drifblim's eyes are slightly larger than drifloon's and red in color. Their crown also turns red. The main difference between drifloon and drifblim is that the latter have four substantially wider legs. These are equidistant from each other and look like long, thin ribbons. The top of the ribbons are the same light purple as the bottom of the orb, and the ends of the ribbons are yellow.

Drifblim gas is slightly flammable. Burns and very high temperatures can cause it to ignite in pale blue flames. Before they faint burning drifblim have access to far more power than usual. Punctured drifblim also leak gas, but this does not increase their power. Instead leaking drifblim gain a substantial boost to their speed until they fully heal or deflate. Unconscious drifloon in the wild are taken to food sources by the rest of the party and usually recover.

Drifblim do not die of natural causes. They can reach diameters of 1.2 meters and masses of ten kilograms.

Behavior

Drifblim spend almost all of their nights in the clouds, sometimes moving in a particular direction but most of the time just floating where the wind takes them. If they are above humans when daylight comes, they descend down to the earth below.

Like most phantoms they often flock to sites closely tied to death. But drifblim actually have something else driving their choice of daytime haunts: they are fascinated with endings. Recent deaths are likely to attract drifblim. So are births, divorces, bankruptcies, coming-of-age ceremonies, drug relapses, and anything else that abruptly changes an existing status quo. One novelist has reported a dozen drifblim and nearly one hundred drifloon descending upon their yard as they sent their publisher the final draft of the last book in a popular young adult series. Drifblim have also been known to show up at watch parties for the series finale of long running television shows, provided that those parties occur during the day or just after sunset.

Both evolutionary stages, but drifloon in particular, are endlessly curious. If they have been in an area before they will spend all day looking for changes, however minor. Otherwise they will explore whatever catches their attention. A 2007 viral video showed a drifloon playing with a doorbell for over two hours before becoming fascinated with the camera recording her. They will often play with people and pokémon.

Most parents do their best to instill a fear of drifloon in their children. This is because drifloon sometimes lift a child into the sky with them after a few hours of play on the ground. There is proof that this happens about fifteen times a year across the world. However, recent studies complicate the idea of drifloon as malevolent child killers. To start with, most abducted children are eventually found with their mind and body intact. The overwhelming majority of these children admit that they wanted to run away from home but had no idea where to go. This suggests that the drifloon believe themselves to be doing their playmates a favor.

Drifblim have never been observed eating. It is believed that they are a peculiar sort of aminivore that feeds upon feelings of loss and closure in humans. In any case ghost researchers are almost universally convinced that drifblim do not damage the mental health of the people they feed on. If anything their playful antics and bizarre appearance might bring their "victims" some happiness at a moment when it is desperately needed.

Wild drifblim live in parties of ten to fifty drifblim and three hundred to six hundred drifloon. They usually do not all go to the same places on the surface, instead spreading out as they descend. At night they reunite and slowly lift back into the clouds. When directly observed at night, either in person or via livestreams, the entire party will disappear in an instant. This behavior is very seldom replicated in captivity. Satellite images that are later viewed during the day do not cause drifblim to vanish; drifblim do not appear to do much of anything at all at night except drift. Why they go to such lengths to conceal themselves is a mystery.

Husbandry

Despite living in large parties in the wild drifblim are quite content to live alone with a trainer and other partner pokémon. Drifblim are relatively affectionate towards their human and pokémon friends and enjoy physical contact. Larger drifblim really enjoy taking their trainer or teammates on long flights before descending in roughly the same place they ascended from.

The main problems when caring for drifloon are their curiosity and diet. Drifblim dislike all pokéballs, although they will tolerate luxury balls and premier balls. Unlike most ghost-types they do not appreciate dusk balls. During the day they want to explore and at night they want to fly. The only times they will happily accept their pokéball are when winds are too strong to make flights pleasant or when their trainer has some clearly defined reason for doing so, such as an eminent battle.

Drifblim's rather unique diet makes them almost impossible to feed in captivity. Reading a good book to the end and basking in the feelings it brings is one decent way, but this is not practical for most people to do almost every day. If allowed to roam drifblim will usually go off and satisfy their own hunger and curiosity before returning at dusk and dawn. Drifblim instinctively know where to find their trainer and will return, even if they are separated by entire oceans. Sometimes drifblim allowed to roam will still stay with their trainer for an entire day or night.

Unlike most ghosts the species has no aversion to light and can be battled or bonded with at all times of the day.

Illness

Drifblim that have not been allowed to feed upon endings for more than two to four days will begin to deflate and have more sluggish movement. Very strong endings, particularly deaths or funerals, will usually be enough to revive them. They will remain distrustful of trainers who allowed them to deflate in the first place.

Strong damage in battle will eventually go away on its own. Being stored in their pokéball and taken to an ending will make the recovery go faster.

Drifblim sometimes fade away and pass on when their trainer does. Sometimes they do not. Drifblim that survive their trainer will either attach to a close relative or friend of the deceased or simply float back into the sky to find a new party to join. Outside of voluntary passing, prolonged starvation, and possibly reproduction (see Breeding) drifblim may be immortal.

Evolution

The exact trigger of drifloon evolution is not known. At some point, drifloon will steadily begin to grow in size and change in shape. The whole process takes about one week from start to finish. Captive drifloon typically evolve at a much younger age than their wild counterparts but there is no apparent means of making a drifloon evolve faster. Experiments where two drifloon of roughly the same age were taken in by the same trainer and treated the same have resulted in one drifloon starting to evolve two months after capture and the other evolving three years later. Six months in captivity is the median point of evolution but everything from two days to ten years has been recorded.

Battle

Drifblim are stuck between offensive ghosts such as gengar and mismagisus and defensive ghosts such as jellicent. The former are faster and stronger than drifblim; the latter has more staying power in a fight. Mimikyu and Alolan marowak even compete with drifblim for a spot on bulky offense teams. Instead drifblim is left to a niche as a baton passer and bizarre sort of revenge killer.

As they take more damage from fire or stab wounds, drifblim gain more power and speed, respectively. These injuries also cause drifblim to leak, giving them far less staying power than they otherwise might have. Drifblim are well suited to boosting up with stockpile, substitute, or calm mind at the start of a match while they can float above the fray and use their slippery surface and general bulk to take hits. Status moves such as will-o-wisp can let them wear down opponents and buy more time to boost. Then if they start burning or leaking they can start to unleash a barrage of powerful or fast shadow balls, hexes, or thunderbolts. As things wind down to the finish, drifblim can baton pass their earlier boosts or use destiny bond or explosion to take care of their current opponent. This does make drifblim a tad predictable and smart opponents can use tricks such as toxic, perish song, or blunt force impacts to wear drifblim down without unleashing their late game wrath. Bulky ghost-resists such as blissey and snorlax also have little to fear from drifblim outside of baton passes. But, most of the common anti-flier tactics (electrical burns, ice shrapnel, sharp rocks) run a high risk of setting drifblim off. Teams with a drifblim answer will handle it easily enough; teams without one can find themselves losing a pokémon or two without much to be done.

On the island challenge drifblim are best off running some combination of a boosting move, a status move, an offensive move, baton pass, and a finishing move. If there is time and money to teach more tricks, go for offensive moves. While drifblim are not the strong ghost around they are perfectly serviceable and when played well can continue to win matches to the end of the challenge.

Acquisition

Drifloon can be captured, adopted, or purchased with a Class I license. Drifblim can be captured with a Class II license or be purchased or adopted with a Class I license.

Drifloon are most common in the wild around graveyards and funeral homes, but they can also be spotted with some frequency around restaurants and businesses that are about to close or museums that are about to have a temporary exhibit rotate out. Almost all drifloon will agree to go with a trainer after a quick proving battle. Some will gladly accompany a new human partner even without a formal battle. This makes them a somewhat popular starter pokémon, especially since many journeys almost immediately follow an ending of some sort.

Breeding

Drifblim clearly reproduce. If they did not the wild population would be almost entirely drifblim. Instead wild drifloon considerably outnumber wild drifblim. Drifblim have never reproduced in captivity, been recorded doing so in the wild, or explained to a channeler how they breed. The most we can do is speculate.

Reproduction probably happens high in the atmosphere where humans have historically been unable to observe drifblim. Drifblim are exceedingly shy around cameras in the atmosphere; usually they will gently play with or observe weather balloons, but if one has a camera attached it will almost always be destroyed. Thankfully they vanish when a plane passes instead of destroying it.

Reproduction also probably results in the death of at least one drifblim. The total number and size of drifblim parties has not changed much since worldwide data collection became possible. If new drifloon are created and the total population is not growing, then drifblim must die at rates that starvation and voluntary passing cannot account for.

Subspecies

N/A


	38. Honchkrow

**Honchkrow (Murkrow)**

Overview

Honchkrow have their flaws as a pokémon. Murkrow are fond of engaging their trainer in psychological warfare for one thing. Honchkrow are less sadistic but less likely to obey commands. Still, their intelligence and folklore make them extremely popular among a certain subset of trainer: teenage girls with no friends, a goth-inspired wardrobe, a chip on their shoulder. At least one literal vampire has befriended one.

Physiology

Both stages are classified as dual dark- and flying-types.

Murkrow have dark blue or black feathers over most of their body. There is a small tuft of feathers at the base of their tail, which fans out from a single point in all directions. Murkrow's talons and beak are devoid of feathers and pale yellow in color. The eyes are red and glow in the dark. The species strangest feature is their 'hat.' The hat has a circular brim of feathers extending horizontally from the top of their head. These feathers are quite dense and are easily mistaken for a solid layer. Three large tufts protrude above the brim.

Honchkrow are substantially bulkier than the rather scrawny murkrow. Evolution changes their tail pattern to something more typical of a bird, with a long horizontal row of feathers flowing out behind them. The talons become black with sharp white claws at the tips. White crescent markings form beneath the eyes. The tufts sticking out of the hat condense into only one or two short peaks, while the brim of the hat becomes longer at the front and back and stays roughly the same length on the sides.

Males have a white "beard" of long, soft feathers covering up the lower head, neck, and most of the chest. The inside of their wings are coated in bright red feathers. Females usually have pure black feathers; males have dark blue ones. Both sexes' feathers are iridescent.

Murkrow and honchkrow have a keen sense of smell for birds, as well as acute night vision. However, their hearing is limited to relatively high pitched sounds. Even honchkrow have relatively shrill cries despite their appearance and size.

Male honchkrow can grow up to 1.2 meters in length, including the tailfeathers, and weigh up to 15 kilograms. Females are somewhat smaller, seldom reaching lengths of one meter. They can live up to thirty years in captivity or forty in the wild. The average murkrow lifespan is closer to five years in the wild.

Behavior

The species tends to live in social groups with one mated pair of honchkrow and one to three dozen murkrow. Honchkrow are notoriously harsh bosses that punish failure through physical violence or ostracizing the offender and rallying other murkrow to bully them. However, the belief that honchkrow deliberately starve the murkrow like raticate starve rattata is false. While honchkrow prioritize their survival over the murkrow in extremely difficult times, the distribution of food in good times is usually rather equitable when adjusting for body mass.

Murkrow disperse at the start of the day. If one finds a kill, it flies back to the central nest and alerts the honchkrow. The honchkrow then fly out from their nest and stake their claim on the kill, bullying away anything that tries to take it. Historically this worked very well as most large native predators are either insects, fighting-types, or birds. The former two can be scared away by two very large corvids arriving. The latter can be beaten back by swarms of murkrow confusing them and honchkrow making strategic hits. The introduction of pack-hunting canines and snorlax has complicated this strategy. Even gumshoos and raticate can make staking a claim far harder than it otherwise would be.

The newly introduced competition has led to honchkrow gradually shifting to more of a predatory role. Their favored prey are raticate. Murkrow will swarm a raticate's nest and start carrying off food or beating up rattata. Eventually the raticate will become enraged and leave the nest. The murkrow take turns guiding the rat to the honchkrow, which descend from a high tree branch and kill or wound the raticate in a single hit. This "harass and lure" strategy works for most species that are unintelligent enough to fall for it and small enough to be killed in one strike.

Honchkrow have long been revered as psychopomps. In Alolan mythology, murkrow guide the dead to the base of Mt. Lanakila where ninetales take over and bring the souls up to the gods for judgment. "Honchkrow are psychopomps" is a common belief worldwide, largely because they are ominous and intelligent scavengers that flock to dead carcasses and scare off other would-be scavengers. The birds also tend to share territory with ghosts out of coincidence: honchkrow and ghosts prefer dense, dry forests with tall trees and abandoned human settlements. Part of the species' reputation of bringing souls to the afterlife is more literal. Murkrow have a habit of playing pranks on humans, including chasing or leading them off the trail and away from other group members in the middle of spirit-infested woods.

In terms of more benign pranks, murkrow are prone to stealing anything that interests them and can be carried away in their talons. The latter is not strictly a requirement, as one murkrow was observed trying to drag away a small television set several times larger than itself. A honchkrow eventually appeared and dragged it off into the forest. Shiny objects in particular are not safe. One of honchkrow's main activities in the wild is guarding and exploring the murder's stash of objects. This stash is usually kept in plain view to attract meowth and persian, which are promptly killed by either murkrow or one of the honchkrow.

A typical resting site is a very large tree with many branches, at least one of which needs to be thick enough to support a honchkrow or two. Ideally there will be few branches near the base of the tree so that other predators have a hard time sneaking up on the birds as they rest at night. Honchkrow periodically change nests. This involves every murkrow in the murder flying in several loops about one kilometer above the nest. Then the honchkrow take flight and all of the murkrow swoop down to join them in one large group. When the new nest is reached, the honchkrow rest as the murkrow again fly up and circle the nest. It is not known why they move nests or why the murkrow need to circle.

Husbandry

Murkrow are not an easy bird to raise. The only Alolan bird that might be smarter is xatu. And while xatu are mostly benevolent, if a little lacking in personality, murkrow are not. Murkrow are prone to pushing boundaries and playing pranks on their trainer. While they can be affectionate, breaking them in takes time and emotional energy that most trainers are simply unwilling to give.

Fortunately, murkrow are hierarchal. Unfortunately, murkrow only take orders from their parents. Unless a murkrow imprinted on their trainer at birth (see Breeding), they will not initially respect a human. Gaining their respect requires acting like a honchkrow. Many trainers assume that this just means bullying their pokémon. While setting expectations and boundaries and doling out punishments (ideally social punishments and not physical ones) is important, it is only half of the required behavior. Trainers must also subdue powerful enemies and routinely provide food. The latter is easy, but to build a connection murkrow must either only be fed when the trainer wins a battle or be allowed to eat multiple animals or pokémon the bird saw their trainer kill. Some level of physical affection is required, even when the murkrow is still prone to biting the trainer's ear whenever it gets a chance.

Honchkrow are prone to treating trainers like their children. This is true even if the honchkrow imprinted on their trainer at birth. Wild honchkrow are not particularly kind to their children. After losses in battle, they will harass their trainer just as much as a newly caught murkrow does. However, honchkrow are willing to share any kills they make and will occasionally cuddle with their trainer at night.

Both stages are very intelligent and easily bored. They will devote most of their creative talents to provoking their trainer and teammates if not given anything else to do. Sometimes training can be turned into a game of sorts, especially if puzzles are created that require a particular use of a move or combination of moves to solve. These are not easy to dream up, but there are several example training exercises online that work well. Alternatively, small puzzles that work well for humans tend to work well for corvids. Rubix cubes are a notable exception, as murkrow usually just take it apart rather than try to solve it. This is still entertaining for them, but only for a moment.

Honchkrow cannot be housebroken. They are certainly smart enough to understand the concept of it, especially when raised with other birds. The species just refuses to only defecate in one area. Murkrow waste is rather solid, but still has enough liquid to make it difficult to clean up. On the trail this isn't a problem, but it does become an issue when staying in a city or building for more than a few minutes.

The best diet for honchkrow is raw meat, bones and all. The birds will not eat the bones, but it will force them to solve a small puzzle while they eat. When they are done they even get new toys. If raw meat is not feasible, dried meat or primate biscuits can work for short periods. Unless it is particularly hot outside or they are not being fed raw meat, honchkrow do not need to drink water.

Honchkrow will usually pick up a handful of human words. While they are not the most skilled mimics of bird pokémon, they are capable of understanding the meaning of words and phrases. No fully fluent honchkrow has been observed but they can generally make their intent clear. Alola has several far nicer pokémon capable of communication and lifelong friendship, but some trainers adore their talking honchkrow companions.

Illness

Vaccination for avian cholera and the West Nile Virus is required within thirty days of capture.

The most common problems that captive honchkrow face are avian pox and parasites. Avian pox initially appears as wart-like growths on the beak or legs. If left untreated, the growths might turn into open, festering lesions that can cripple or wound the bird. There is no cure, but if treated by a professional veterinarian or birdkeeper recovery with only minimal scarring is likely.

Parasites include ticks and fleas. These are generally uncomfortable and can carry illnesses. If they latch on near the eyes they can cause permanent blindness. Grooming other pokémon and removing their parasites in front of a honchkrow will teach it that their trainer can remove the insects that they cannot. The pokémon will ordinarily groom itself, but approach their trainer and make a show of grooming themselves when they need help.

Unlike most birds, honchkrow bones are not hollow and are in fact very sturdy. If a bone does break it is unlikely to ever heal. Trainers should exercise caution in battle and immediately withdraw their pokémon and take it to a veterinarian if a bone does break. Murkrow bones are far less durable and far more likely to break, but they can recover when very young.

Evolution

Murkrow begin to evolve at around three years of age in the wild. The process takes another year. In captivity, especially when exposed to concentrated dark-type energy from a dusk stone, they can mature far faster. Evolution is marked by a period of rapid weight gain and bulking up. In the wild, this is when the new honchkrow leaves the nest. They do not immediately form their own murder, instead grouping into murders of sub-adults that roam between territories, scaring off other scavengers when possible and doing their own hunting when necessary. These sub-adult murders do have strict hierarchies with males at the top and females at the bottom. Every male and female knows their relation to every other member of their sex. While facially deferential to dominant honchkrow, the inferior bird will often do everything in their power to undermine their superior without getting caught.

Battle

Honchkrow in the wild finish their prey in one strike. They are not particularly adept fliers due to the weight their bones provide and their general bulk. The adults function mostly as a deterrent for mid-sized predators and a means of finishing off prey that murkrow cannot handle.

Unfortunately for honchkrow, there are several heavier birds that also rely on powerful impacts. Braviary and staraptor are two of their main competitors, although rarer choices such as haastile and harpyre are even stronger. The tricks that honchkrow can learn are not enough to compensate. Murkrow, while fast enough to effectively use disrupting moves, are too frail and weak to be considered a viable option.

On the island challenge things are quite different. Honchkrow do compete with braviary, but the latter is difficult to train as an adult and have a long maturation period. A single full body tackle from honchkrow plus a follow-up attack or two is strong enough to seriously hurt or knock out most opponents. The final few trials may be difficult, but honchkrow can still put a dent in almost anything. Brave bird or sky attack are ideal moves with sucker punch or dark pulse serving as a compliment. Heat wave, steel wing, or superpower provides useful coverage. Roost can keep honchkrow in a fight if it cannot win in a single hit.

Murkrow are fast tricksters. Even early on they are not very useful offensively, but their speed and intelligence let them fly circles around most opponents. Roost, a good offensive move or two, and a supporting disruptive move such as taunt, torment, or featherdance is all a murkrow really needs to annoy their foe and ultimately outlast their opponent. They work well on quickstall teams and when they evolve they can make for an effective breaker for any single pokémon the team cannot deal with.

Acquisition

Murkrow can be captured, purchased, or adopted with a Class III license. Honchkrow cannot be legally captured, but can be adopted or purchased with a Class IV license.

Honchkrow live on every island in Alola, usually in dry forests. They are most common on the lower portion of Route 2 and the Hau'oli suburbs on Melemele, Route 4 on Akala, Route 10 on Ula'Ula, and the upper levels of Vast Poni Canyon on Poni Island. It is best to capture a murkrow while it is scouting for food in the early morning. Approaching the main nest for a capture is a bad idea because the honchkrow are likely to get involved. While they are ordinarily reluctant to approach humans, much less attack them, honchkrow will kill trainers that stir up trouble near their nest.

Breeding

Honchkrow courtship occurs inside of sub-adult murders. A male will approach a female and display for her. If she shows interest, she will follow the male as he goes out to hunt. If successful, they will share the carcass and then go off to form their own nest. The female takes the lead on building the first nest while the male gathers sticks and other materials for it. Subsequent nests have their materials gathered by the older murkrow and assembled by the female honchkrow, who also mentors the female murkrow on the art of nest building. The male takes a more active role in hunting during these times to compensate for several murkrow being occupied with constructing the nest.

Honchkrow lay three to six eggs with an incubation period of about one month. The male and female take turns guarding the eggs, which are durable enough for a full grown honchkrow to sit on. Newly hatched murkrow are entirely dependent upon their mothers for regurgitated food. Murkrow that beg loudest tend to get fed more, regardless of whether they need the food as much as their quieter siblings. After leaving the nest at about fifty days old, murkrow are insatiably curious and investigate everything they see. They are escorted by a honchkrow everywhere they go outside the nest for the first three months. Older murkrow take over for another three before the young birds are accepted as full-fledged members of the murder with the same duties and supervision as their older siblings.

The species is difficult to breed in captivity largely because of the difficulty in finding a suitably partner. Female honchkrow typically accept less than 10% of their suitors. Surprisingly given their selectivity, females and males are willing to mate with other birds such as corviknight, toucannon, and mandibuzz. They can even have fertile offspring with the former. Honchkrow will also build a nest and insist on staying in one place. In captivity they are prone to stealing pillows, blankets, clothes, and other soft objects to line the nest with. Between egg laying and the chicks leaving the nest, honchkrow are prone to dive bomb anything that gets too close, including their trainer. While they seldom kill a human they know, broken bones are common. This is made worse because honchkrow usually nest near their trainer's residence, making it dangerous to just walk outside to get the paper.

Subspecies

Honchkrow range across Europe, Northern Africa, Australia, Oceania, and Asia. There are more than two dozen documented subspecies. The smallest are typically found on the Pacific Islands, although honchkrow in Alola are rather large due to competition from mandibuzz. Perhaps the most famous subspecies is the Siberian honchkrow due to their very fluffy appearance and tendency to puff themselves up around humans, forming a black ball of feathers.

The largest subspecies is the near-flightless Indian honchkrow that live in the foothills of the Himalayas. Male Indian honchkrow can reach two meters in length and are fearsome predators in their own right. They use their intelligence and keen hearing to track down nocturnal mammals while they sleep during the day. Indian honchkrow are large and powerful enough to batter their way into tree cavity nests and tear into burrows. Insects and other pokémon hiding higher up on trees are harassed by the murkrow until they fall down to the waiting honchkrow. Unfortunately, an antibiotic used in miltank farming proved lethal to honchkrow in even very small doses. Dead miltank were often left out in the fields as they were not used for meat. While the cause of the "honchkrow plague" was eventually discovered and the antibiotic is banned, the damage was done and the Indian honchkrow is now critically endangered.

Unlike most other species, honchkrow also vary substantially in behaviors across space and time. Murkrow seem to inherit very few instinctual responses and pick up most of their behaviors through teaching and experimentation. Hunting, housing, social, and childrearing behaviors can be rather different between closely related populations.


	39. Crobat

**Crobat (Zubat, Golbat)**

Overview

Zubat have a reputation of being more of an annoyance than a potential boon to a traveling trainer. This is unfortunate as crobat are reasonably intelligent and affectionate companions that, unique diet aside, are rather low maintenance. Trainer who are squeamish around blood are generally advised to opt against training the species, as are trainers with several furry or carnivorous mammals as companions. Crobat are a natural fit on poison-type and flying-type specialist teams and do reasonably well in battle as a disruptor.

Physiology

All three stages are classified as dual poison- and flying-types.

Zubat have primarily dark-blue bodies. The legs are long and relatively thin. They have wings with a purple membrane in place of arms. Zubat have small and rather weak eyes. Their large fangs and ears balance this out.

Golbat are proportionally longer. While many people believe that their mouth makes up nearly 90% of their body, this is not the case. Golbat have a large black patch of fur on their chest with small bone growths resembling teeth growing out of their torso to scare prey and predators alike. Their actual mouth is relatively small and contains their real fangs. Golbat have much larger wings and much smaller outer ears than zubat.

Crobat look far more like zubat than golbat. The body is covered in a very thin layer of purple fur. They possess four wings, each with a unique muscular system that lets them extend or retract the membrane of their wing to their armbone, letting them crawl or fly relatively easily. The wing structure makes crobat virtually silent fliers. One crobat was observed flying for nine consecutive days without rest by switching off between the front and back set of wings when they needed to rest. Crobat have no external ears, but they do have internal ears. For reasons unknown, crobat's mouth is white on the inside.

Outside of zubat, the evolutionary line has more powerful vision than the average human. This is useful for seeing in the dark. They also have an extraordinary sense of hearing. All evolutionary stages use echolocation to scout out the world around them. Similar clicks are used for communication. All three stages have long hooks at the end of their hind-legs; crobat also have claws on their front wings. The Alolan subspecies possess multiple safeguards for their ears that let them hear very faint sounds but also cover their ear canal before very powerful vibrations can damage their hearing. This is an adaptation for routinely sharing caves with noivern.

Crobat are hemophages. They exclusively feed on blood. An all-liquid diet is not good for their digestive track and they must limit their feedings or risk overloading their kidneys. Most zubat are not patient enough to drink too much blood and crobat know their limits; golbat often have problems with overfeeding in the wild. Additionally, the liquid diet means that crobat must eat at least once every two days. Bats that do not get enough to eat will receive regurgitated meals from other members of the colony.

This unique-among-mammals diet is facilitated by the bat's specialized fangs. These are very thin and hollow on the inside. Unlike most fangs, these are used for sucking blood into the body rather than injecting venom (although crobat are venomous and can spit bloody, infected, slightly corrosive acid). Due to their frailty, these fangs often break. Crobat do not regrow fangs; upon injury, they must rely for the rest of their life on the generosity of other colony members. Defanged bats focus on protecting the colony's roosting grounds and providing assistance with childrearing.

Crobat can live up to nine years in the wild or fourteen in captivity. They can reach wingspans of 1.6 meters and can weigh as much as seven kilograms when hungry or nine kilograms when very full. Wild crobat can live up to six years; captive crobat can live up to nine.

Behavior

Zubat and golbat live in large colonies deep inside of caves. Any type of cave will do; in Alola colonies live in the dry caves of the Vast Poni Canyon system, along the banks of underground rivers in Seaward and Sandy Caves, in the frozen caverns of Mt. Lanakila, and in scalding hot tunnels beneath Akala Volcanoes National Park. Even large abandoned buildings will do. The largest colonies can contain upwards of 800 zubat and golbat at a time. The pokémon spend the day inside resting and engaging in social behaviors such as grooming. At night all but the youngest of zubat and one of the clutch's parents will fly out to hunt.

Zubat and golbat prefer to feed off of large diurnal pokémon. The bats are quiet and gentle enough, and their fangs sharp enough, that most prey do not even wake up. Smaller creatures, like humans, do occasionally fall prey to zubat in other parts of the world. However, in Alola food is almost always abundant. Attack is only likely if a trainer enters into the colony itself and either stirs up trouble or gets too close to baby zubat. Golbat will occasionally attack and kill rattata in a single impact or wing attack. They will then bring the rattata back to the colony or drain it on the spot. Tauros, miltank, ampharos, and mudsdale are some of the most common targets of zubat and golbat. Other observed prey species include kangaskhan, gumshoos, braviary, salamence, stoutland, snorlax, blissey, wigglytuff, magmortar, bewear, lickilicky, and hariyama.

Crobat tend to live in bonded pairs usually, but not always, consisting of a male and female. They either sleep or relocate during the day and then go on to hunt at night. Abandoned toucannon nests are some of crobat's favorite places to roost as they are large enough to fit two bats and still relatively difficult to access. Crobat will sometimes actively kill small pokémon to drain even in times of abundance.

Due to the many bloodborne illnesses crobat are carriers for, they have virtually no natural predators. Metagross, which are not subject to any known terrestrial diseases, do regularly hunt crobat. However, there are not many metagross in Alola and they tend to hunt more interesting prey than small bats. The zubat line's mortality rate is still rather high given the risk that feeding on much larger creatures carries.

Husbandry

The main problem with caring for captive crobat is their diet. So long as the trainer stays in one place, they are relatively easy to feed. Crobat and golbat can be provided with a dish full of blood placed at the edge of a counter. The bat will fly over and drink from it while hovering in place. Zubat can be fed from ice cube containers filled with blood. Tauros blood is rather easily obtained from butcher shops. A mix of blood and an anticoagulant (12 grams dextrose, 4 grams citric acid, 11 grams sodium citrate per gallon) should be used rather than raw blood. Crobat naturally apply an anticoagulant when absorbing blood through their fangs, but blood they drink can clot and cause health problems. The coagulant mixture can be homemade or purchased from some specialty pokémon stores. Some specialists recommend a mix of different bloods. Other experts recommend putting multivitamins into the mix. The efficacy of either dietary option has never been empirically proven and both can be rather expensive.

Crobat must be fed once every two days, although daily feedings are recommended. Recommended feedings are five to six milliliters a day for a zubat, ten to twelve for a golbat, and fifteen to twenty for a crobat. Any more and there is a risk of overwhelming the kidneys. Lower end feedings should be applied to relatively sedentary pokémon and higher end portions should be used for frequent battlers or delivery pokémon. Water is not needed on days where blood is provided. It must be provided on days where blood is not given as crobat dehydrate very quickly.

Golbat and crobat are intelligent enough to be housebroken or learn to urinate outside. Zubat can be "trained" by putting a litter mat underneath their preferred roost. This will solve most problems. Speaking of roosts, zubat and golbat need one when out of their pokéball. While they can be kept in pokéballs for a few hours a day (or in dusk balls for two six hour shifts in a twenty four hour period), all stages want to spend a lot of time out of their pokéball. They are social creatures and want to play, explore, or interact with their trainer or other pokémon. While technically nocturnal, crobat only sleep about five hours a day split into many short naps. Ideal crobat roosts provide a relatively sheltered area and a place to hang from. Shower rods work well enough, and small zubat can use coat hangers. Crobat are perfectly capable of staying in near-perpetual flight, but they also appreciate a place to roost from time to time.

Crobat rely on other bats to groom them in the wild so their trainer will need to take over this role. This is a good way to earn the pokémon's trust. Music and other strange vibration patterns can serve as toys or bonding experiences.

Some trainers let themselves be food for their crobat. While this is a cheap way of obtaining blood, it messes with the bat's bonding instincts. Furthermore crobat are known to carry many bloodborne illnesses, including HIV, malaria, West Nile virus, and rabies. The risk of contagion and their innate hunting instincts make training a crobat on a team full of diurnal mammals somewhat inadvisable, although it can be done with firm boundaries and frequent blood tests on the crobat.

Illness

Crobat are immune to almost all bloodborne illnesses. They are one of the only mammals that are extremely resistant to rabies. The species' unique immune system makes most vaccines ineffective on them. Battling trainers will need to give their pokémon periodic physicals to make sure they are not carriers of rabies or one of the other pathogens that make them unable to participate in League sanctioned battles.

The species suffers from one big drawback: they aren't built to last. Zubat and golbat rarely recover from serious wing or fang damage, and both areas are very fragile. In the wild this is counterbalanced by the many, many able-bodied members of the colony stepping up to provide for the disabled. In captivity a broken wing isn't a death sentence, although the bat may never fly again. Broken fangs do not regrow but are not a serious health problem unless the site becomes infected; captive crobat lap up blood in containers rather than pulling it in through their fangs. Defanging is even a standard operation for families who just want a zubat as a pet rather than a battling companion.

The vast majority of crobat health problems either are a result or cause of dehydration or overhydration. Mid-range portions should be given every day until a veterinarian can be consulted.

Evolution

Zubat usually evolve into golbat around sixteen months of age. The process is one of gradual growth, with the formal demarcation line marked by all four faux-fangs breaking the skin. Golbat flash evolve into crobat. Severe injury appears to prevent evolution but minor wounds are instantly healed in the process. Only the best of hunters evolve. Fewer than one in fifteen wild golbat evolve, but nearly one-third of captive golbat do. The leading theory is that consistent feedings and occasional combat fool the body into thinking that the bat is a very successful hunter. Crobat evolution can take place anywhere between the golbat's third and seventh birthday.

Battle

Crobat are too fragile and not powerful enough to have had much impact on the competitive battling scene. Even trainers who want to use a bat have the stronger kelawapi, swoobat, and noivern to pick from. In the very limited use they have seen, they served as fast disruptors firing off taunts, toxics, hypnoses, defogs, tailwinds, and supersonics before the opponent can react. Their frailty makes them an awkward fit on quickstall, though.

On the island challenge crobat can be rather effective due to the sheer difficulty of hitting it. Crobat can fly up to 200 kilometers per hour in shorts burst and they average about 120. Their moderately powerful aerokinesis and venomous spit can be used to slowly whittle away at an opponent's health. Trainers willing to shell out money on special TMs and tutoring can teach coverage moves such as heat wave and dark pulse. Nasty plot can be used for boosting, but requires a crobat to stand still for longer than is advisable.

Draining moves can be used but put crobat's delicate fangs at risk. They should only be used to finish off sleeping opponents with a powerful bug bite or giga drain. The same goes for contact moves. While crobat moving at max speed can hit opponents very hard, the impact is likely to hurt crobat far more than their opponent.

Acquisition

Zubat and golbat can be found inside of almost every cave in the commonwealth. However, wading into a colony and attempting to stir up trouble will lead to a fight. Golbat are not polite enough to charge their opponents one at a time, which makes fighting difficult and potentially dangerous. The best way to catch a zubat or golbat is to wait outside of a cave entrance at dusk. When the bats come out, try and isolate one and start a battle. As soon as they've exited the cave, only crobat looking after their children will bother to stay back and defend fellow colony members. Zubat can be purchased, captured, or adopted with a Class III license; golbat and crobat require a Class IV to purchase, capture, or adopt.

Crobat are far more difficult to find than their preevolutions. The best way to bait them is to leave a large mammal asleep in a clearing at night and wait to see if anything shows up. Alternatively, looking around forests with very large trees in hopes of finding a toucannon nest can work. Sometimes there will be something more aggressive than a crobat inside of these nests, though, and partners will back each other up in combat. All things considered, it is recommended that trainers look for a zubat or golbat instead.

Breeding

In the wild, a mated crobat pair return to the male's colony once a year to mate. Pregnancy lasts for six weeks. The female will then give birth to a clutch of eight to twelve zubat. Both parents, along with other colony members, assist in raising the children. Only one crobat will leave the cave each night, the other staying back to defend the children. As mammals, crobat nurse their young. Babies don't begin to get some regurgitated blood until they are four weeks old. They still nurse until their parents leave the colony four months after birth.

Captive breeding and even hand-raising zubat is possible. Newborn zubat require a cramped, dark place with adequate roosting space and a place to put food. For the first three weeks, hand-raised zubat will need to be fed with a syringe filled with milk. The bats will lap milk off the end of the syringe rather than suck on it. They instinctively understand to do this. After this bowls and ice cube containers can be used to facilitate the gradual introduction of blood. If a female crobat is watching after the babies, she can be trusted to nurse and regurgitate enough blood to allow for proper development. Otherwise a mixture of blood and milk should be used until the babies are four months old, at which point they can be fed blood alone. A good list of appropriate blood-milk ratios at varying ages can be found online in the AZA's guide to zubat husbandry.

Subspecies

Crobat occupy a wide range of habitats. In spite of this, their geographic range is limited to eastern Asia and remote Pacific islands, with a handful of introduced colonies in Europe, South Africa, New Zealand, and North America. Most subspecies are relatively similar to each other, with slight variations in wing power and fur thickness. The European crobat, which historically shared much of its range with noivern, has developed safeguards to their hearing similar to the Pacific crobat.

The Pacific crobat, the dominant subspecies in Alola, has the strongest wings of any crobat. However, they are somewhat slower than the other subspecies. Northern crobat can fly up to 300 kilometers per hour in short bursts, compared to 200 kilometers per hour for the Pacific crobat.

The Northern crobat have thinner fur than the harsh winters of their environment would suggest. This is because they seldom leave their homes in the winter, instead slowing their metabolism and draining other hibernating creatures who retreat into the caves with them. Snorlax are a favorite of theirs, but finding blood vessels beneath the fat can be challenging and risk waking the bear up.


	40. Noivern

**Noivern (Noibat)**

Overview

Dragons have always loomed large in the human imagination. They are on average the strongest pokémon and almost all are aggressive carnivores. Most are large enough to prey upon man. Some were powerful enough to fight ancient cities or even empires and win. Even in an age where most species have been trained, dragons are still among the hardest pokémon to handle.

Noivern is as good a start to dragon-type training as any. They aren't particularly aggressive towards humans, are easily conditioned to obey commands, are rather affectionate, and they are big enough to win battles without being so big that logistics become troublesome. Even then, they are still large and powerful carnivores with long lifespans and high intellects. Trainers should think twice before putting any dragon on their team.

Physiology

Noivern are classified as dual flying- and dragon-types. The dragon typing is disputed as noivern probably evolved apart from the "true dragons" descended from serpents. They are actually descendants of the pterosaurs such as aerodactyl. While scientists are unsure when and how the dragon-type evolved, or if it may have independently evolved several times, this is evidence that tyrantrum's dragon typing may not be a mistake of the cloning process. Noivern are reptilian like most dragons and are very competent at wielding draconic energy. There is fierce debate over whether pokémon other than true dragons should be allowed the dragon typing and, if so, whether ancient, extraterrestrial, or semi-mythical pokémon such as tyrantrum, guzzlord, and zygarde should be an exception. If noivern's dragon typing is ever revoked, water, psychic, or normal are the most likely replacements.

Noibat have primarily dark grey scales with thick tufts of black feathers around their midsection. These feathers help keep them warm in relatively cool caves. Noibat also warm themselves in caves through huddling with zubat (see Behavior) and their very high metabolisms.

Both noivern stages are warm blooded like most dragons but unlike most reptiles. The extinct and revived pterosaurs were and are also warm blooded. However, long thin membranes require some behavioral supplements to their natural temperature control processes.

Noibat have long, thin legs tipped with fourwhite claws. They have two wings with light blue membranes. Another set of claws are located in the middle of their wings. Their wings are supported by three long fingers. Other fingers form small claws on each wing. Noibat have large faces, but the size is exaggerated by the very thick feathers on their head and their proportionally large eyes with yellow feather markings that make the eyes appear even larger. Their nose is coated in purple scales.

The line's most notable feature is their giant ears. These ears can be moved independently and each are about the size of the rest of the head. Concentric circles line the interior and bright blue scales cover the back. Massive vibrations can be created from these ears. Contrary to popular belief, wild noivern are not very loud at all. Their wingbeats are virtually silent and almost all of a wild noivern's vocalizations are above or below the range of human hearing. Instead humans are likely to feel very intense but silent vibrations. Captive noivern tend to learn the range their trainer can hear in. This makes them very, very loud.

Noivern vibrations can shatter glass for a kilometer around them or kill small animals within a few meters. Alternatively, the frequency of these waves can be adjusted to disrupt thoughts or transfer crude psychic messages. Their hearing is the most sensitive of any pokémon and noivern can use echolocation to see the world for miles around them. Noivern have good, but unexceptional, senses of sight and smell.

Noivern are generally lankier than their pre-evolutions. Their main body is long and featherless Alolan noivern continue with the dark gray and black color scheme of their preevolution, although wild noivern that have interbred with other subspecies can have green stripes or even bright red feathers. Noivern retain grey scales on their face, aside from green inner ears and a purple crest over their eyes. Compared to noibat, noivern have rather long legs complete with knees and webbed feet big enough to walk on for short distances. Their tail has grown to be long and sturdy and it contains a thagomizer at the end for spearing anything that gets behind the bat.

Noivern can grow up to 2.5 meters in length and weigh up to 20 kilograms. In the wild, noivern usually live for about twelve years. In captivity they have been recorded living for upwards of six decades.

Behavior

Noivern typically share caves with zubat. The adult noivern provide protection to the golbat colonies and the golbat and crobat in turn provide socialization and basic care for the noibat. Noivern themselves rarely sleep in caves and prefer to rest on beaches or rocky cliffs.

Noibat primarily hunt non-pokémon insects. Powerful vibrations are used to stun or kill the bugs around them. The bat then cleans up, finds another swarm of insects, and then kills and eats them. If possible, they do not leave the cave to hunt. As they grow older, they venture outside and start searching for berry groves. Adult noivern, even those not related to the noibat, may take the younger pokémon on flights over the ocean.

Noivern primarily hunt fish. Wishiwashi and luvdisc are some of their favorites. The hunting strategy they use is rather similar to that noibat use on insects. Noivern fly low above the surface of the water and use echolocation to scout for schools of fish. When they find one, they fold their wings and dive into the center of the school before letting out a massive vibration. Their powerful lungs and tail let the noivern eat almost one-third of their body weight in fish before swimming back to shore. While returning to land, noivern are vulnerable to predation from gyarados and sharpedo. Wishiwashi schools are highly vulnerable to sonic blasts and seldom attempt to avenge their brethren.

Once they reach dry land, the noivern hauls itself onto the beach and spreads its wings. This serves the dual purposes of drying off the membrane and warming the pokémon. When they are not hunting or sunning themselves, noivern graze on land or in the sea. The species is fond of eating algae off of rocks and corals in relatively shallow waters. They also seek out orchards and use echolocation to identify the best berries to eat. Noivern are not particularly social but they do tend to spend the night in bands of six to eight, if only for mutual protection from larger predators.

Noivern tend not to mind humans approaching them while they are sunning and sometimes even appear to pose for pictures. They have been known to approach humans and rummage through their things with or without the owner's consent. Close contact with noivern is discouraged and feeding them is illegal. Once a noivern has tasted human food they tend to spend more of their time begging on the streets of coastal cities than hunting or foraging in the adjacent waters.

Husbandry

Noibat can be fed most insect mixes and supplemental water. The core of noivern's diet should be made up of fish with algae and seaweed occasionally added. Noivern should almost always be able to access a water dish due to their difficulties regulating their internal salinity (see Illness). Fresh fruit is an excellent motivator and reward but not a necessary component of their diet.

Some noibat and noivern are very accepting of pokéballs. Others will almost never enter them voluntarily. Be mindful of your pokémon's preferences. Noibat need a perch to hang from at night if they do not tolerate pokéballs. Noivern typically prefer to sleep near their trainer. When content, noivern tend to purr in long, drawn out rumbles. When upset, they tend to rely on short but intense ultrasonic vibrations or high-pitched screeches. Tears are not a sign of sadness; they are simply a way of ridding the body of excess salt after dives in the ocean. Young noibat can only really be housebroken by putting a tray under their preferred perch; as they get older they are rather easily trained.

Noivern will need daily opportunities to fly and at least weekly opportunities to swim. They are capable of swimming in either salt or fresh water, although they seem to prefer fresh water in captivity. Noibat do not require much space to fly in. While they are not as intelligent as many other dragons, noivern still need frequent stimulation in the form of grooming sessions, exploration of new places, games, or exposure to new music or other vibrations. As a note on the last point, noivern prefer their music to be played very, very loudly and are prone to humming their favorite tunes at deafening volumes. Some enterprising trainers have 'fed' their noivern live concerts or at least concert recordings and used them, occasionally alongside a zoroark, to replicate the experience of a live show. In any case, noivern seldom quiet themselves so living in one place with one requires either having no neighbors, paying them off, or accepting that fines for disturbance of the peace will be a recurring expense to budget for.

Most noivern tend to have distant relationships to their trainers, seeking food, attention, and occasional cuddles while maintaining a high degree of independence. Others are far more social and have been nicknamed "lap dragons." Like most intelligent pokémon, all noivern have very distinct personalities their trainer will need to account for.

Illness

In the wild, oil spill-related illnesses have killed up to two-thirds of other marine noivern subspecies. These illnesses most commonly kill by making it nearly impossible to fly on oil-coated wings or through poisoning when consumed. The blackspot disease that led to the collapse in global mountain noivern populations (see Subspecies) has been documented in marine noivern, but it is rare and the marine subspecies seem to have a higher resistance to it than the terrestrial ones.

Noivern's very large wing area and the thinness of the membrane makes them very vulnerable to water loss while in the sea. They developed the ability to shed incredibly salty tears to shed salt and help maintain homeostasis. Tear duct injuries can be fatal. If a noivern stops crying or starts needing much more water than normal without a proportional increase in time spent in saltwater, keep the pokémon in their pokéball as much as possible and keep them away from salt water. Then consult a veterinarian at the earliest opportunity. Most problems can be fixed with relatively minor surgery if acted upon quickly enough.

Respiratory problems are common in marine noivern. Breathy hisses often indicate pneumonia. Lots of panting or vigorous wing flapping on the ground can be signs of hypo or hyperthermia. In the wild noivern can retreat into caves or the water if they become too hot or sun themselves if hypothermia starts to set in. Captivity often deprives noivern of these options. While they are technically warm-blooded, noivern's homeostatic systems are rather weak compared to most mammals and require some behavioral compensation. Their body temperature is about 28 degrees Celsius.

Evolution

Noibat evolve into noivern around their third birthday. Evolution is rather distinct from growth, which occurs gradually and happens for years before and after evolution. In the wild, evolution is marked by the near-total cessation of insect hunting and the start of fish hunting. In captivity it is better measured by the shift from a nocturnal sleep schedule to a diurnal one. If a diurnal sleep schedule was enforced on the noibat, an uptick in daytime energy is the best signal that evolution has occurred.

Battle

The European bluewing noivern is the main subspecies used in competitive battling. The remaining mountain noivern also see some use. Marine noivern are only used by trainers who cannot get their hands on one of the larger and louder subspecies. All subspecies of noivern are moderately bulky, especially with the aid of roost or moonlight, and they are fast enough to avoid many hits. They are also devastatingly powerful; the bluewing noivern can pulverise granite boulders from a distance of five meters. While the marine noivern is nowhere near as powerful, they are equally fast and far more nimble. On the competitive pokémon scene, bluewing or mountain noivern are used by several dragon specialists and a handful of quickstall users. Their main drawback compared to other large dragons is a lack of versatility in offensive options and lack of any especially powerful set-up moves. However, noivern are one of the easiest dragons to train and they are fast and powerful enough to single-handedly defeat teams that are unprepared for them.

Marine noivern are not quite so fearsome. Still, their boombursts are powerful enough to defeat many opponents in a single hit and their draco meteor and hurricane attacks are also very difficult to tank. As somewhat large dragons they can also shrug off some weaker attacks. In the air noivern are fast enough to outspeed most opponents and wait for a good opportunity to strike. Unfortunately, noivern are very vulnerable to slashing attacks powerful enough to tear their membrane as well as spread ice- and fairy-type attacks. Noivern also have somewhat shallow offensive movepools and, while their utility movepools are rather good, they are not quite bulky enough to successfully serve in a supporting role.

Noibat are best used as quick harassers that wear down their opponents through supersonic and/or toxic while firing off the occasional weak ranged attack. While they are very weak, don't worry: someday they will be much, much stronger.

Acquisition

Noibat can usually be found around the entrances of large cave systems at night. They are somewhat easily scared and may retreat back into the cave where their nimble flight and echolocation will make them very difficult to keep up with. Their capture is currently prohibited on Akala and Ula'Ula to allow for population maintenance and growth. On Melemele they are most abundant in Verdant Cavern and on Poni they are most often seen around the south entrance of Terminus Cave.

Noivern are usually found in warm, shallow waters, on rocky shores, and along cliffs. It is illegal to disturb a noivern while it suns itself, even for the purposes of capture. Fruit groves that noivern are known to frequent are the best places to find and battle one. As with noivern, capture is currently prohibited on Akala and Ula'Ula.

Noibat may be purchased, captured, or adopted with a Class II license. Noivern may be purchased, captured, or adopted with a Class III license.

For both evolutionary stages, fruit and exposure to music are the best ways to gain the respect of the newly captured dragon.

Breeding

Male noivern claim territory in the resting spots of their bands. During the breeding season (September to October), males will release very powerful mating calls and perform elaborate dances to attract the attention of females. If one is interested, they will mate and stay close together for the next four to eight weeks. Then the female will go to a golbat colony and enter negotiations. She will offer some measure of protection in exchange for raising and protecting her young. Newborn noibat are only ten to fifteen centimeters long. Three to four are born in a single litter. The mother will stay to nurse her young for a few weeks and then head back to her band's sleeping area.

Noivern breeding is extremely difficult in captivity and essentially requires large plots of rural land. Thankfully, noivern mating cries are almost entirely ultrasonic. The vibrations are still among the most powerful noivern ever produce and can be felt for up to a kilometer away. Every city in Alola has an ordinance against keeping male noivern within city limits and out of their pokéball for more than one hour at a time or three hours a day during the months of September and October.

Baby noibat are rather self-sufficient. Unlike zubat, they do not require milk. The babies should still be provided with an enclosed dark space with several good perches and many small insects for their first few weeks of life. Crickets are preferred as they cannot climb up to bother the noibat if they are not immediately eaten and their songs provide entertainment to the baby dragons.

Subspecies

There are four broad categories of noivern subspecies. The smallest are marine noivern, the group that Alolan noivern fall into. These subspecies are distributed across the tropical and subtropical Pacific. While their anatomy and behaviors are similar, their color schemes vary from the pitch black of Alolan noivern to bright red in the Caroline Islands to green stripes in the Galapagos Islands to patches of blue skin in the Solomons. Mixed-breed marine noivern can have combinations of their parents' color schemes or even new patterns altogether. This has made them rather popular in captivity, although most zoos are starting to avoid mixing subspecies to better facilitate release to the wild

The bluewing noivern spend their summers on the plains of Western Europe and travel to the Sahel in winter. They are giants with wingspans of up to twelve meters and lengths of up to seven meters. While far from the heaviest dragon by mass, they are still one of the largest by size. They have the largest wingspan of any living pokémon, although the extinct Caspian noivern were larger.

Unfortunately, bluewing noivern's size makes them dependent upon the availability of large grazing ungulates, their preferred prey. The decline in wild populations in Europe was a substantial blow to them. The replacement of the old grasslands with pastures stocked with delicious gogoat but vigorously guarded by humans with ice-types and powerful weapons led to a sharp decline led to the bluewing noivern becoming critically endangered. Only the installation of strict conservation laws (some of Europe's first) and large preserves such as the Galarian wild area has kept the subspecies alive. These efforts have been bolstered by captive breeding on large ranches in the United States and Australia.

The mountain noivern used to live in the Alps, Atlas Mountains, Caucuses, southern Urals, portions of the Hindu-kush, and a handful of mountains in Japan. They are smaller than the bluewing noivern and primarily hunt small ungulates and mammals. Sometimes they rarely leave their caves at all and simply find prey inside of the caverns. Unfortunately, in the 1980s most mountain noivern subspecies began displaying blackspot disease. The illness causes vomiting, high fevers, rapid cognitive decline, the formation of black sores, diarrhea, and ultimately death. There was originally no vaccine or even a proven method of managing the symptoms, especially the cognitive impairments. While this would have been bad enough for mountain noivern populations, the disease was communicable with humans. Amid mass hysteria and a public health crisis, several military forces and private hunters went into the mountains to kill as many noivern as they could. In the end a vaccine was developed and the disease was found to originate from rattata who carried the disease with no symptoms. A handful of mountain noivern remain in the Hindu-kush and a reintroduction attempt is being made in the Alps. There are approximately 300 in captivity worldwide.

The Caspain noivern had wingspans of up to thirteen meters. They are believed to have preyed upon large desert species, similar to the behaviors exhibited by bluewing noivern in their seasonal migrations over the Sahara. Traditionally, their extinction was believed to have occurred around 150,000 BCE, along with their main prey, bactrigyn and armorossum. A discovery of a cave painting with what appears to be a noivern was recently discovered in the Gobi desert, far away from any living subspecies' range. The painting was dated to 5,000 BCE.


	41. Dugtrio

**Dugtrio (Diglett)**

Overview

Alolan dugtrio are not the best battlers. Traditionally they were associated far more closely with peace and agriculture than war. However, they are scientifically fascinating creatures with enough power to make it through most of the island challenge. While "cuddly" is not a word often used to describe dugtrio, they are loyal and relatively easy to please. They are also a fair bit more expressive than most of the inorganic steel types and easier to obtain than all but one of Alola's ground-types.

Physiology

Diglett and dugtrio are classified as ground- and steel-types. The ground typing is due to their terrakinesis and subterranean habitats. The steel typing is due to the metallic core of their whiskers and slightly metallic nature of their subdermal armor. There is increasing consensus that the armor is more stone than metal and their secondary typing should be changed to either rock or water. Still, dugtrio are competent at wielding metallic elemental energy.

Diglett rarely put anything more than their head above the surface. As such, most people know diglett as a dark brown creature with a long straight neck, a thin mouth, wide eyes, and a large pink nose. A small tuft of golden whiskers adorn the top of their head. Below the surface, diglett are a fair bit longer and have two sets of legs with waterproof brown fur, webbed feet, and sharp claws.

Above the surface, dugtrio resemble a group of three diglett huddled together. The one major difference is that their hair is much, much longer. In the wild it is usually unkempt and somewhat dirty, with differences in texture and length varying between heads. In captivity it has often been kept very clean and styled along the lines of human hair. While it is perfectly fine to gently clean dugtrio's hair, cutting or styling it is no longer recommended as it makes the pokémon uncomfortable and may cause actual pain. At minimum it interferes with the pokémon's ability to sense the world around it, navigate, hunt, and battle.

Beneath the surface, dugtrio are rather different than diglett. While diglett are relatively slender, dugtrio are very stocky and bulky. All three necks are able to rotate 360 degrees independently of each other. Each head seems to possess a degree of independence, but outside of occasional food squabbles they are remarkably in synch with each other.

Compared to most dugtrio, the Alolan dugtrio have very hard subdermal armor. Contrary to popular belief, this is not because the dugtrio need to dig through volcanic soil. All dugtrio subspecies are capable of digging very deep into the earth and withstanding relatively high heats and pressures. However, the crust under Alola is mostly composed of basalt. Most continental crust is made of the far less dense granite. Because the Alolan dugtrio takes these dense minerals and trace metals into a thin layer of armor under their skin, they are somewhat more durable. Furthermore, the Alolan dugtrio has some of the lowest physical strength of all subspecies as they seldom need to dig very fast and mostly stick to the loose soils around wetlands, coasts, and the Haina Valley.

What makes the Alolan dugtrio extraordinary are their lengthy whiskers. In addition to being aesthetically interesting, the whiskers are extremely sensitive and can detect an average car from up to ten kilometers, footsteps from up to a kilometer away, and virtually every vibration within fifty meters of them. Each whisker is coated in nerve endings and taste buds that allow them to decide if something is edible and then ignore it or move to eat it in less than one fiftieth of a second. Stranger still, dugtrio can smell underwater by rapidly blowing bubbles and inhaling them.

Behavior

Dugtrio typically live in three locations: very loose sandy soils, subterranean rivers, and shallow ponds on the surface. In deep subterranean waters, dugtrio hunt by digging beneath the lake and letting their hair rise up and sense the world around them. If they find food, the dugtrio springs into action and kills it before quickly retreating below the surface, using a strange secretion and terrakinesis to seal up their hole before it can become flooded. If they do not find food, they will seal the hole behind them and rapidly swim towards vibrations in the water until they find food. Then they will rise to the surface, catch their breath, and prepare to dive back down and back into their hole.

In shallow surface waters dugtrio do not need to dive up into the water to find prey. Instead they move along the bottom, raking up the substrate to drive out invertebrates. If they sense a fish or small dewpider on the surface they will burst out of the water and try to kill it in one go. This is when dugtrio are most often seen on the surface.

The dugtrio that live in shallow sands typically either use their vibration sensing abilities to hunt for other substrate dwellers or stay beneath the surface and wait for something small to walk over them. then they will rush out and attempt to kill their prey in a single hit. While continental dugtrio have often been observed using antlion traps to capture prey, the Alolan dugtrio has never been seen doing so and prefers to rely on blunt force impacts.

When they are not hunting, dugtrio typically relax in the elaborate tunnel system they dig beneath their territory. For sand dwelling dugtrio these burrows can be deep below the surface where the sand ends and the clay and bedrock begin. Coastal dugtrio often dig their burrows a little inland to avoid having their tunnel networks flooded.

Because taro grows best in very wet soils or patties, dugtrio naturally show up around taro farms. There they serve the dual purposes of tilling the soil in and around the taro and killing the insects that would have devastated the crops. Dugtrio's agricultural importance, and not their hair, was why they were regarded as minor fertility gods throughout the archipelago.

Outside of evolution and maybe mating (see the relevant sections), dugtrio are relatively solitary. They do not allow other diglett or dugtrio to use their tunnels unless they are merely passing through to a different hunting ground not currently occupied by either pokémon.

Husbandry

The biggest problem in caring for dugtrio is their extreme reluctance to be entirely exposed on the surface. While they do not suffer the near-instant sunburns that other subspecies do, they still get extremely uneasy when they cannot retreat into the earth. Dugtrio will often try to dig through pavement or floors to get most of their body underground. They are strong and fast enough to make a good start before being withdrawn. Thankfully, dugtrio are incredibly tolerant of pokéballs and can spend up to twenty-three and a half hours a day in one so long as they are well fed. This probably stems from their natural tendency to relax in cramped dark spaces when not hunting.

In captivity dugtrio should be fed a mix of fish, crustaceans, insects, and occasional kibble or red meat. Small quantities of iron, obsidian, and basalt should be mixed in with their food. Dugtrio can eat up to one-third of their body weight each day. They will need to be provided with a water dish every few hours. Ideally dugtrio will have frequent access to shallow ponds or pools. Many trainers make taro patties as a source of income and a home for their pokémon.

So long as they are well fed and their other needs are met, dugtrio will often stay nearby trainer. When newly captured they may make frequent escape attempts and require constant vigilance and many withdrawals. Even the most loyal of dugtrio will rarely initiate physical affection. They generally tolerate touch when initiated by familiar humans or pokémon but will otherwise bolt away from the potential attack. Outside of grooming sessions, which are not necessary, their whiskers should never be touched.

Because of their tendency to dig when stressed or startled dugtrio do not make good housepets.

Illness

While dugtrio have lived alongside humans for millennia, they have only been held in captivity for the last three decades. The initial forays into dugtrio captivity led to many deaths from stress, starvation, infection, cuts, blunt impacts, or thirst. As such the more natural health problems that plague dugtrio have only just begun to be understood.

Rabies has been documented in the Alolan dugtrio and vaccination is required. Tapeworms and fleas are more common problems. Unfortunately, veterinarians have not yet worked out proper insecticide doses for dugtrio and medication is not advised. Coastal and subterranean dugtrio do have higher mercury concentrations in their whiskers and blood than dugtrio in the Haina Valley, but the metal doesn't appear to have any ill effects.

Evolution

Dugtrio evolution is poorly understood. While captive dugtrio have evolved, it has been rare and poorly documented. It appears that three close diglett may make a pact to evolve and subsequently dig several kilometers into the earth. They will sometimes reemerge at the same spot several weeks later and seek out their human caretaker. Because evolution is not possible to replicate on the surface, requires three separate diglett, and often leads to abandonment trainers who want a dugtrio are recommended to catch the evolved pokémon in the wild.

Battle

The Alolan dugtrio has only been used by two unranked professional trainers, both within the last five years. Both trainers have their pokémon take advantage of loose soil and the cover of a sandstorm to make fast strikes with their sharp whiskers or undermine the opponent's footing through seismic attacks.

The Saharan dugtrio has been used extensively in competitive battling, including by three ranked trainers. Indoor stadiums inhibit the pokémon's movements and often outright ban dugtrio, but most high-end general purpose stadiums are either outdoors or have a deep pool of loose dirt under the battlefields. Six of the seven Continental Conference tournaments use arenas with deep soil cover. This is a relatively recent change as the finals of the Uluru Conference took place on Uluru itself until 2013. The Southern Conference takes place on an ice sheet with chalk markings delineating the field. Because it is held in the Antarctic winter only ice-types, fire-types, and other extremely cold-resistant pokémon are used.

The antlion traps used by the Sahara dugtrio block pokéball withdrawal on anything stuck inside of them. This makes dugtrio very effective slayers of steel, rock, and electric types whose opponents cannot switch out regardless of a conference's rules. On balance, dugtrio are rather weak and incredibly fragile. One moderately powerful hit to the head will shatter the pokémon's armor and force surrender.

On the island challenge dugtrio and diglett work best in very loose soils with sandstorm support. They struggle to do much on concrete or pavement and often immediately panic over being unallowed to dig. Under more ideal conditions, dugtrio are rather fast and can duck into the earth to avoid most attacks. Slightly precognitive pokémon can hit them when they surface and seismic moves can collapse dugtrio's tunnels and cause substantial damage. Because newer trainers are unlikely to have either option available or the raw power to collapse tunnels by striking the ground indiscriminately diglett is very effective early in the island challenge. Dugtrio is somewhat less useful later in the challenge when opponents are bulky enough to take some attacks, fast enough to strike dugtrio when they surface, and powerful enough to win in one or two good hits.

Acquisition

Diglett require a Class I license (and $20,000 of mandatory insurance coverage) to capture, adopt, or purchase; dugtrio require a Class II license (and an identical insurance premium to diglett).

While dugtrio are most easily found in taro farms, the owners are unlikely to let trainers capture their very helpful resident moles. As such, the best places to catch them are in sandy soils and in wet caves. An exception to this rule are the terrace streams of Route 5 where dugtrio often hunt in the shallow ponds in front of waterfalls.

Beaches and the sandier portions of Haina valley are prime dugtrio habitat. Unfortunately, dugtrio seldom even peak above the surface for long. The best way to find and capture a dugtrio is with bait. While it may not be ethical to subject one of your pokémon to a (often lethal) sneak attack, follow around small pokémon and animals for long enough and you might see a diglett or dugtrio strike. The window of opportunity is very short unless a sleep-inflictor or dedicated trapper is available. It's usually better to just throw a pokéball and skip the battle.

Dugtrio also live in the subterranean rivers, lakes, and coves of the islands. Sandy Cave, the lower levels of Verdant Cavern, Seaward Cave, Diglett's Tunnel, and parts of the Altar Cavern-Poni Crystal Mines-Terminus Cave complex are all prime habitat for diglett and dugtrio. It is important to stay near motionless beside a stream or pond away from the most traveled paths. Ideally no lights should be used and a pokémon capable of navigating in total darkness should be on hand to initiate a battle when a mole shows up. Dugtrio completely surface when an upward dive is unsuccessful providing as good a chance as any to start a fight. The pokémon will usually be surprised enough at a large threat appearing deep in their tunnels that a few free hits can be put in. Sudden blinding light from a flashlight or headlamp can also stun the pokémon for long enough for a pokéball or two to be thrown.

Breeding

Like evolution this is poorly understood. It is not even known how to determine the sex of a dugtrio. Or how courtship works. Or whether dugtrio mate for life. Or how frequently dugtrio breed or what the size of their litters are. They have never been bred in captivity and this seems unlikely to change in the foreseeable future.

Subspecies

Broadly speaking, dugtrio can be grouped into five groups of subspecies found throughout the Old World and Pacific islands. While there is extensive fossil evidence of dugtrio populations in the Americas, it is believed that excadrill led to the extinction of these subspecies.

Cave dugtrio are most common in Japan, China, and Southeast Asia. These dugtrio are blind and have very thin skin and light subdermal armor, making them incredibly prone to sunburns and ill-suited for life on the surface. They tend to hunt in subterranean caves. Unlike the Alolan dugtrio, cave dugtrio subspecies are usually reluctant to enter the water for even very brief periods of time. Cave dugtrio sometimes hunt with precise strikes from below but are just as likely to hunt by collapsing the ground or an entire cavern onto their prey. There is evidence that cave dugtrio can live for over 100 years and can go half a decade between hunts.

Farm dugtrio typically live in the fertile grasslands of Europe. They face competition from the burrowing rattata in Africa and have been unable to establish a foothold in the savannah. Farm dugtrio do not hunt in ponds or have much affinity for water. Instead they carefully move around the root systems of grasses and other plants and eat the insects that try to feed on the roots. While they are slightly less sensitive to sunlight than cave dugtrio, they still almost never put their head above the surface. Because they both till farmland and eat parasites they were and are revered by farmers.

Sand dugtrio include the Sahara, Kalahari, Kalosian, and Gobi subspecies. While there are slight differences between the three, most notably in the properties of their traps, they follow the same general approach to hunting. All of these subspecies except for the Kalosian sand dugtrio are social. They use antlion traps to abruptly collapse the earth beneath their prey. When they hunt individually, dugtrio can snare and kill small desert species such as katsmere and sandshrew. In packs dugtrio can take down entire herds of domestic camerupt and the humans who ride them. Desert-dwelling peoples have traditionally viewed them as gods of vengeance and have often hunted other species to leave on the ground as offerings to the dugtrio. This pact has led to greatly reduced mortality rates among the nomads. In fact dugtrio often defend caravans from predatory pokémon and invading humans that do not pay proper tribute.

Mantle dugtrio probably do not live in the actual mantle. But they do live deep in the Earth, well below the seafloor. Very little is known about them. Their existence is only known through seismic tracking of small earthquakes, the existence of the Alolan dugtrio an ocean away from the other subspecies, and a single half-melted corpse found after the eruption of Mt. Saint Helens. This dugtrio specimen was nicknamed Helen by the discoverer and the media.

The Alola dugtrio is in a subspecies class of its own due to its behavioral similarities to desert, farm, and cave dugtrio. While the other subspecies are distinct from one another even when they share a range, Alolan dugtrio in all three habitats are very closely related. Dugtrio that hunt on the beaches have been known to move to caves or rice patties. Genetic testing on Helen confirmed that mantle dugtrio are the Alolan dugtrio's closest relatives.


	42. Fearow

**Fearow (Spearow)**

Overview

Fearow are often overlooked by trainers. While it is true that they lack the raw power of toucannon or braviary, the intelligence of honchkrow or xatu, or the durability of mandibuzz or skarmory, fearow have a niche. One of the two flying birds that is stronger is braviary, which is infamous for its slow maturation rate. The other, archeops, is incredibly difficult to obtain. Trainers who want a powerful bird that won't take up all of their time or money are advised to consider fearow.

Physiology

Both evolutionary stages are considered dual normal- and flying-type pokémon. Neither ruling is disputed.

Spearow are small birds with relatively long featherless legs. The stomach feathers are white and the feathers on their head and back are primarily dark brown with red stripe patterns. The beaks are somewhat longer than the average bird their size. Spearow are most famous for the loud whistles they use to communicate with each other.

Fearow have longer legs and wings. The coloration of their wing and back feathers changes to a pattern of white stripes on black feathers. Fearow's most notable features are their long flexible neck and their sharp beak. These are both employed in hunting fish: the neck lets fearow stand in rather deep water and the beak can be used to grab small fish or spear larger ones. The birds have excellent eyesight and hearing to locate their prey. Like noivern, fearow cannot fly with wet feathers and need to stand still in the sunlight with wings spread out in a semicircle as they dry. Anything that approaches a sunning fearow will be given a warning whistle before receiving a series of powerful stabbing attacks.

Despite being primarily aquatic, fearow do not have waterproof feathers or webbed feet. They are wholly unable to swim and must rely on wading to move through the water. What they lack in swimming ability they more than compensate for in flight. Fearow's long broad wings are excellent at catching thermals and fearow can dramatically lower their metabolism when they glide. This lets them migrate up to 500 kilometers without having to touch the ground or feed.

Fearow can live up to ten years in the wild or twenty in captivity. They often obtain wingspans of two meters and can weigh up to five kilograms.

Behavior

Spearow primarily live in brush and tall prairies. Farmers who grow crops on dry soils love spearow because they hunt the insects that plague crops. They have been dubbed the diglett of the air. Spearow are rather social and live in flocks of five to fifteen birds. Both stages are primarily diurnal, although fearow often take midday naps and have brief periods of activity at night. When spearow are not hunting they prefer to take refuge in trees.

Fearow are piscivorous. Unlike the many other piscivorous birds in Alola, fearow prefer to hunt in relatively shallow estuarine waters and inland streams. Their main competitors in this role, araquanid and bewear, are deterred by the prospect of an elementally-charged peck. Fearow spend almost all of their time sunning, sleeping or fishing. They live in mated pairs rather than large flocks. While one hunts, the other watches for vikavolt and predators. At night both fearow fly into a large tree to sleep.

Husbandry

Spearow are relatively easy birds to care for. The bulk of their diet should be made up of insect mixes. Popped or unpopped popcorn serves as an effective treat for reasons that are still not well understood. Dishes of water should be provided once or twice a day. Spearow are diurnal and rather social birds and will prefer to be out of their pokéball and near their trainer for as much of the day as possible. The first major drawback to this is that spearow, like most birds, have a tendency to defecate when they take off. This means that it is difficult to housebreak them. More importantly for some trainers spearow have a tendency to stay perched on their trainer until something catches their attention and they fly after it, defecating on their trainer as they do so. The second drawback to having a spearow out is that they are territorial birds that will sometimes attack other pokémon that get too close.

Fearow are less of a hassle in public, but the larger amounts of (more expensive) food they require them somewhat more difficult to care for. Fish should be the core of their diet with periodic additions of tarantulas or other large insects. Coconuts make good training tools and treats as the birds love to stab into them and drink. When thrown they can work as a target as the fearow tries to strike through it in midair. Dips in water are also good for calming fearow and potentially even providing them with free food. While spearow are tolerant of pokéballs at night, fearow are not and prefer to roost near their trainer. Unfortunately, they are also difficult to housebreak and produce a rather large amount of waste. Stationary trainers are not advised to have carpet installed in their bedrooms.

Spearow require shows of dominance to bond with at first, followed by a slew of battles or games to keep the pokémon entertained. Fearow are best bonded with through displays of kindness and affection. Other birds are useful for enticing either bird to stay and take orders. This makes them common on bird specialist's teams. Both stages are quite capable of cleaning themselves from anything but oil-based attacks.

Illness

Like many bird species, fearow can be carriers of avian influenza. The disease generally causes no harm to fearow, but may kill other birds. Bird-to-human transmission has been documented but is extremely rare, even among bird trainers, so long as basic sanitary measures are observed. Trainers should thoroughly wash their hands after handling fearow waste. Because of the lack of symptoms it is difficult to diagnose carriers. If another bird in the party comes down with avian influenza, a more thorough test on the fearow can be conducted.

Avian botulism has been a recurring problem among fearow in Alola. A series of outbreaks between 2004 and 2009 strongly contributed to the Alolan swanna's numbers plummeting to twelve captive birds, all off the islands. Fearow fared little better but populations began to recover due to the lack of competition from swanna and the decreased concentration of waterfowl making it more difficult for the pandemic to spread. Trainers should be very mindful of the symptoms of avian botulism such as partial paralysis in the wing, difficulty swimming, and labored breathing. The bird stands a decent chance of survival if the disease is caught early.

Mercury, pesticide, and insecticide concentrations are problems for all piscivorous birds, fearow included. These symptoms can be best avoided by limiting the pokémon's ability to feed in the wild, or at least to feed near agricultural or industrial sites. High concentrations of toxic chemicals tend to cause problems in reproduction such as sterility and thin eggshells. They seldom have visible consequences outside of breeding.

Evolution

Spearow gradually transition to fearow. A relatively rapid increase in size occurs between eighteen and thirty months of age. This is the evolution period. The formal demarcation is the replacement of the old coloration of the wing feathers with the black and white pattern of a fearow.

Battle

On the competitive scene where trainers have the time, experience, and money to invest in stronger birds or flighted dragons, fearow sees relatively little use.

Spearow are reasonably powerful for their size and are brutal scrappers. They seldom need or take orders once they get into the thick of things. This means that they win or lose almost purely by their relative strength and defenses to the opponent.

Fearow can be played a little more tactically. The first and biggest choice is whether they should take off or stay on the ground. Unlike honchkrow or braviary, fearow do not rely on full body tackles powered by gravity. Instead they primarily attack through beak strikes. In the air fearow are faster and better able to dodge attacks. However, they must get close to attack which leads to a lot of signaling. Furthermore wing damage while flying can cause a lot of damage and potentially even a one-hit knockout. Grounded fearow are slower but often able to use their long neck and beak to zone opposing melee fighters. They can also strike very quickly and are difficult to block. A good rule of thumb is that flight is better against ranged attackers and a grounded stance is better against melee-oriented opponents.

While fearow while struggle on the fourth island, they are otherwise quite capable pokémon. Even spearow can hold their own for the first few trials.

Acquisition

Fearow can be found along ponds, rivers, and wetlands in the interior of all four islands, as well as in a few cold-water estuaries such as Kala'e Bay. They are most easily seen in the day. Unlike noivern, sunning fearow are fair game. Trainers pursuing fearow should be advised that the bird probably has a mate that will hound the human who took partner. For these reasons, only spearow is recommended for capture. It is still legal to capture fearow, although it is usually best to capture both mated pokémon or to watch a fearow over the course of several days to make sure that it does not yet have a mate. In addition, spearow can be purchased at some agricultural specialty stores.

Spearow can be purchased, adopted, or captured with a Class I license. Fearow can be purchased, adopted, or captured with a Class II license.

Breeding

Fearow choose mates the third spring after they reach full size. Once bonded pairs stay together for life. Widows and widowers do not pick new mates.

The male begins building a nest in the early autumn by bringing sticks into the tree and building a skeleton. The female eventually adds in the fine details. Only two or three eggs are laid at a time but mated couples breed every year and survival rates for chicks are rather high. One bird will always be incubating the eggs and the nest is big enough for both parents to stand in. Fearow and spearow do make sure to defecate outside of their nest, but they seldom bother to go very far. As such fearow nests often have white rims.

Around their first birthday spearow are taken to a farm or prairie by their parents. The fearow will go back to the marsh and the spearow are left to find others and find for themselves.

Fearow can be bred in captivity. However, doing so requires staying stationary for several months at a time and accepting that one partner will always be on the nest. Fearow can breed with pelipper although they rarely do so in the wild. If there is another bird on the team of the opposite sex, fearow may still bond with it and even mate. No viable offspring will result. Mated fearow are less attached to their trainer than fearow that are single or in a non-reproductive pairing.

Subspecies

Despite being closely related to swanna, pelipper, cramorant, farfetch'd, and other waterfowl and shorebirds, the Japanese fearow seldom gets near the water. Japanese spearow are very similar to the Pacific spearow. Upon evolution, fearow keep much the same color scheme as their juvenile stage. Also unlike the Pacific fearow the Japanese subspecies must compete with pidgeot. This causes the fearow to stay near the fields where they lived as spearow. They use their sensitive hearing to listen for bugs and their beak to stab through trees or earth to snap them up. Because they share their range, fearow continue to watch out after their offspring until and even after evolution.

The California fearow was driven extinct by a combination of DDT, an oil spill, and mercury poisoning in the 1960s. They were golden in color and slightly larger than the Pacific fearow. Because they were free from competition from large piscivorous raptors or dragons, the California fearow nested on the ground and hunted for prey in the ocean.


	43. Braviary

**Braviary (Rufflet)**

Overview

Braviary is the heaviest raptor in the world. They are renowned throughout their range as either war gods themselves or the servants of one. Several of the greatest heroes and warriors of ages past were said to ride a braviary into battle. In the medieval era they were revered for their ability to crush plate metal.

The modern era has not been quite so kind to braviary. The birds often defend their coastal homes to the death. In the past this served them quite well as no one picked a fight with them. Now that humans have the tools to eventually win and the desire to build large coastal cities many braviary have been killed in battle and pushed out of much of their former range. The decline in their prey, large marine pokémon, has also hit them hard. DDT was the final blow that almost drove them and most other raptors to extinction. While conservation programs in Europe, Russia, Canada, and the United States have led to a rebound in their numbers, braviary have yet to rise back to their former glory.

Trainers on the island challenge should be advised that for all of braviary's power they are still not recommended. Braviary themselves are very reluctant to respect a trainer. Anyone who can command one in battle is almost certainly already strong enough that they don't need one. While rufflet are faster to warm to humans and braviary are often willing to part with a chick, they mature so slowly that they will quickly become outclassed.

Physiology

Both braviary and rufflet are classified as dual normal- and flying-types. Neither ruling is disputed.

Rufflet have small and underdeveloped wings. Outside of newly hatched birds, which have white down feathers, rufflet have grey, black, or blue feathers on their legs, wings, fan, and the lower portion of their body. Their head and back are coated in thick white feathers. Rufflet also have a red crest. All feathers but their down are waterproof.

Braviary are massive and powerful birds. They have long feathered legs and large talons. Braviary's wings are extremely powerful and supported by massive muscles obscured by feathers. Between their strong grip and windbeats they have been known to lift objects up to twenty times their own weight. the bottom of braviary's body is made up of the same dark blue feathers as rufflet. The white feathers are limited to their neck and the back of their head. A blue and red crest rises above their keen eyes and sharp beak. Braviary's back feathers are dark red or brown. The tail is tipped in rings of yellow and blue feathers. Scar tissue does not grow feathers. This makes it visually obvious how many scars a braviary has accumulated.

Braviary can reach wingspans of 3.5 meters and weights of fifty kilograms. They can live for up to ninety years.

Behavior

Braviary companies have rather strict hierarchies with one bird in charge and the rest generally subordinate. he exact structure can be fluid across time as subordinate birds challenge the ones above them to battle. Successful challengers can claim the spot of the challenged. The challenged bird is not always obligated to accept the challenge. A long record of past leadership combined with prior successes in hunting and defending the company can give a braviary enough social standing to reject challenges from birds with lesser records. If a braviary declines a challenge but does not have the clout to do so they will be marked with dishonor and mocked by even subordinate birds until they accept the challenge and perform one great feat to restore their honor.

Braviary hunt large marine creatures in the seas around Alola. Sharpedo are their primary prey but mantine and dewgong are also on the menu. Juvenile alomomola, gyarados, and wailmer also fall prey from time to time. The raptor glides above the coastal seas keeping an eye out for prey. When a potential victim is spotted the braviary glides higher on thermals and then begins a dive towards the water. The impact force will usually kill the prey. At this point the braviary will use its powerful wing muscles to pull itself and its prey out of the water and bring it to the company rookery.

The hunter will eat first. Then the rufflet will feed. Finally the adults will eat in order of decreasing rank. Sick birds will sometimes, but not always, be allowed to go before other healthy adults. This allowance appears to depend on the severity of the illness or injury and the rest of the company's opinion of the bird. If any food remains it is donated to nearby mandibuzz prides.

Companies typically live near cliffs above the sea where it is relatively easy to catch thermals and prey need not be dragged too far inland. There are typically ten to twelve adults in a company alongside three to five rufflet.

Combat defines the life of a braviary. Newly hatched rufflet immediately challenge the head of the company to a play battle in order to establish themselves. Members constantly jostle for rank. Wars are started with nearby braviary companies and other birds for territory and honor. When a braviary grows old and begins to decline physically it seeks out a dragon and engages in one final battle as witnesses from the company watch on. The bones of their fallen comrade are collected and buried in a communal service. Other flocks may attend the burial of a very well respected bird.

There are two non-prey species that braviary have well-established relationships with. Vikavolt seldom bother braviary as there are far easier targets. However it is common for a braviary seeking to improve their status to seek out and kill a vikavolt as a sign of their power.

Mandibuzz prides often live near braviary companies and the two frequently interact to exchange food, bones, and information. It was formerly believed that mandibuzz were the females of braviary, which in turn were held to be an all-male species. This is not correct. Mandibuzz are an all-female species but they do not mate with braviary or any male pokémon. Braviary females exist but are identical in appearance to males unless they happen to have a scar in one particular area. The idea that they are all-male stems from human conceptions of masculinity and the extreme shyness of mating birds (see Breeding). Regardless, braviary are exceptionally protective of mandibuzz.

Husbandry

The mandibuzz-braviary relationship is relevant to husbandry. Braviary bond far faster with humans who present themselves in a stereotypically feminine way. The trainer's sex is mostly irrelevant. Only appearance (long hair, jewelry, makeup) matters. Wearing black clothing is also a good way to gain a braviary's begrudging trust. Ivory or bone jewelry can also help.

Gaining a braviary's trust, even with mandibuzz imitation, is very difficult. Unlike most species, braviary do not associate the power and accomplishments of a trainer's pokémon with the power of the trainer themself. Physically challenging a braviary is not recommended and mere attempt does little to gain respect. While it is legal to capture and possible to bond with an adult, only trainers with very high powered pokémon, a stereotypically feminine appearance, and lots of experience with bird keeping are likely to succeed. Even they will face issues of near-constant challenges to their other pokémon and their own authority.

The easiest way to obtain a loyal braviary is to train one a young rufflet. While easier than a braviary, raising one is still no easy task. The rufflet will expect to battle constantly. They will expect to have play fights with their trainer. Access to TMs and a clever strategic mind are the best ways to win over a rufflet. Despite their fearsome reputation rufflet enjoy cuddling and being groomed by their trainer or other trusted pokémon. Braviary with a very healthy respect for their trainer will also seek physical closeness.

Almost all rufflet and braviary despise pokéballs as symbols of subjugation. While they will tolerate them for special occasions (such as battles and sickness) ordinarily pokéballs will be rejected out of hand, even at night while they sleep.

Braviary require a lot of flight time and exercise challenges such as lifting heavy objects. Rufflet are not skilled fliers but will still want exercise out of their sparring. Strength tests like breaking a board with a peck tend to work. Many rufflet enjoy the challenge of trying to sit on a durable but lightweight ball.

Both rufflet and braviary are exclusively carnivorous and will only eat raw or lightly cooked meat and seafood. They prefer seafood they caught on their own. Check the laws related to the hunting of large marine species as it is outright illegal to catch several of them and there are strict quotas on almost all others. Young rufflet eat meat just like their older brethren and will reject insect mixes. If a rufflet or braviary is on the team then feeding order will matter. If a pokémon was instrumental in a recent battle they can go first. Then pokémon should be fed in a set order that reflects power, seniority, or the braviary's opinion on them. Curiously, braviary will get upset if they are fed before pokémon they see as higher ranked than they are. Do note that this ritualistic feeding order can anger other species.

Rufflet can be housebroken rather easily. Braviary will quickly learn what they are supposed to do but will often refuse to do it until sufficient respect is earned. Reinforcement, positive or negative, will be ineffective in training braviary. They will do what they feel obligated to. Nothing less and nothing more.

Illness

Many of braviary's illnesses stem from one of their greatest assets: their very quick healing. Braviary rapidly regenerate from cuts and form a layer of scar tissue over the wound. This prevents the wound from becoming infected. But if the wound was already infected bacteria and fungi can grow beneath the surface and cause serious problems. Bumble foot is the most common of these illnesses. It is marked by a hard bump on the braviary's talons over a healed wound. These infections can lead to death and should be treated as soon as possible. Frequently check recent injury for discoloration, tenderness, or swelling.

Avian pox is relatively common in braviary. This is marked by warts growing near the eyes and beak. While seldom outright lethal, prolonged illness without treatment can cause blindness or respiratory problems.

Braviary can suffer from a number of other health diseases. Head-bowing, sudden changes in the color and volume of crops, wheezing, and general lethargy are common symptoms. Almost all avian diseases require professional care and cannot be treated by amateurs.

Evolution

Rufflet evolution is gradual. Very, very gradual. In both the wild and captivity it takes twelve to fifteen years for a rufflet to evolve. Most rufflet given to trainers by braviary are less than five years old. Increased combat does nothing to accelerate evolution. While nothing special needs to be done to trigger growth beyond adequate feeding, sleep, and exercise even these things will not lead to a quick evolution. Unless a trainer captures a braviary on the trail or obtained a rufflet in early childhood they are unlikely to own one during the island challenge.

The formal demarcation of evolution is the bird's first solo hunt.

Battle

Braviary harm their opponents primarily through blunt force strikes. A fifty kilogram bird dive bombing their opponent from ten meters can hit with enough force to knock out many frailer opponents. The rest can be scooped up in braviary's talons, flown into the air, and dropped. Upon impact they will take another hit from braviary. This combo is extremely effective against relatively lightweight opponents that lack full-body elemental attacks such as flare blitz or discharge.

Even on the ground braviary benefit from powerful muscles and beaks. Many opponents can be overpowered and even outrun by a grounded braviary. A common tactic on the competitive battling circuits is to have braviary use bulk up or hone claws while circling an opponent that cannot hit them. By the time a proper bird check comes in braviary can take often them out in a single strike and finish the rest of the match on the ground.

On the island challenge braviary need few moves to succeed. Brave bird and super power form the core of an effective set. While roost and a boosting move are nice they are not necessary to clear the challenge.

Rufflet is a fair bit tricker to use. Early on they have an advantage over other birds by being relatively strong and eager to train. Eventually those birds will start growing and even evolve while rufflet barely experience any physical changes at all. They also are not adept fliers. Rufflet must fight on the ground relying on relatively strong pecks and their absolute refusal to back down. While this attitude is helpful at first it will only get them hurt later on. For these reasons and others rufflet are really only recommended for trainers who will have no trouble completing the island challenge with five pokémon but plan to go pro afterwards.

Acquisition

Braviary live on all four of the tapu islands and some of the smaller ones. They are presently illegal to capture on Ula'Ula and Akala to allow the populations to build back up. On Akala they primarily live on Mauna Wela and the mountains near the southern coast. On Ula'Ula they live on the abundance of coastal mountains and cliffsides, particularly around Mauna Hokulani, Route 12, and Route 17. While there are braviary companies at low altitudes on Mauna Lanakila none live near the peak. Braviary on Melemele typically live in a stretch of coastline running along Route 3 down to Ten Carat Hill. Companies can be found along almost the entire coast of Poni Island.

Rufflet and braviary capture is best done by slowly approaching a company's nesting area with one pokémon out. When the braviary take notice, bow your head and wait for a braviary to screech. Make eye contact with that bird as it approaches and prepare for a one on one battle. Afterwards the company will deliberate. Sometimes they will entrust a rufflet into the trainer's care. On rare occasions one of the braviary will decide to go with the trainer.

Braviary and rufflet can be captured with a Class III license. Rufflet can also be adopted or purchased with a Class III license; braviary require a Class IV.

Breeding

Braviary have never reproduced in captivity. They have also been never captured mating on film. The exact mechanics of copulation are thus unknown. Around the mating season in early July braviary will get very defensive towards outsiders including drones and cameras that had been tolerated for months.

Eggs are typically laid in mid-February. They hatch around the first week of July which contributes to the unease braviary have around outsiders at that time. All braviary, male or female, help raise all rufflet. Good parenting is a way to increase social status. While strict discipline is enforced on rufflet they are also doted on and given far more attention than most young birds. Sometimes a braviary will leave to another company that defeats their own in battle. Otherwise rufflet of both sexes stay in the company they were born in for life.

A handful of rufflet eggs have been taken from the wild and hatched in captivity. None responded well to humans. While they do imprint to a degree they remain distrustful of bipeds until around their third birthday. Other birds or sock puppet braviary are now used as surrogate parents.

Subspecies

Braviary tend to be anatomically similar across their entire range. However their feather colors and patterns vary considerably. Unovan braviary have a deep blue belly speckled with white dots. Their back is composed of red and white stripes. Alaskan and Yukon braviary tend to have very thick fur. While their backstripes are the same as their southern cousins they tend to have leaf or clover shaped patterns on their chest. Galarian braviary tend to be bright red from tail to beak with a much puffier headcrest. They are unusually stoic for braviary. Russian braviary have longer and sharper talons than other subspecies. While slightly smaller than their brethren they make up for it with their intelligence. They have even crafted rudimentary hammers to bludgeon small prey trapped in their long talons.


	44. Mandibuzz

**Mandibuzz (Vullaby)**

Overview

Mandibuzz are widely known as a female-only species take great pains to adorn themselves but never seem to attract a male to mate with. This is mostly propaganda. In the 1940s the United States introduced mandibuzz to Alola to bond with the existing braviary. The juxtaposition of brave warrior birds protecting stereotypically feminine "civilians" was used to motivate troops by reminding them of home.

Even at the time scientists largely knew that this image was partially false. Mandibuzz are hermaphrodites that lay and fertilize eggs. Their adornments are partially to attract mates but are also used for hunting and to satisfy their own vanity. The mates they attract are other female mandibuzz. While they are often portrayed as carnivores, mandibuzz are carrion birds with jaws too weak to pierce the skin of many pokémon. This misinformation was spread because their scavenging is far more reliable than braviary's hit-or-miss approach of hunting large aquatic game. Sometimes the mandibuzz feed the braviary. This undercuts the image of brave soldier birds.

Mandibuzz are relatively intelligent and social birds. Many trainers are surprised to learn that in captivity they are actually very clean eaters and reliable groomers with the added bonus of being easily housebroken for a bird. While their bone decorations can be a little expensive, they need to be replaced infrequently enough that mandibuzz are not substantially costlier to care for than the average large bird.

It should be noted here that, like gumshoos, mandibuzz ownership carries political subtext. Specifically the vultures are very popular among LGBT trainers. A female trainer with a mandibuzz will probably be read as lesbian more often than not. Mandibuzz were used for decades as a small sign of self-expression and a means of identifying other lesbian trainers. This has only become common knowledge in the last few years as many, but not all, mandibuzz trainers have publicly revealed their sexual orientation. The intersex community also uses mandibuzz as a symbol. This has caused some public conflict between activists over which group has a better claim to the species.

Physiology

Both stages are classified as dual dark- and flying-types. This typing is uncontroversial.

Vullaby are small and plump birds. Most of their plumage is brown, black, or grey. Hatchlings have pure white down feathers. Aside from a small tuft on top of their head, vullaby have no feathers on their head or neck. Their wings are very small and vullaby are functionally flightless. A fluffy collar of soft feathers rings their neck. In addition to being flightless, vullaby are ungainly on land and must awkwardly waddle around.

Mandibuzz have long wings. The feathers at the tips of the wings are lighter than those towards the base. Vullaby's collar has grown into a mess of long and fluffy feathers that extends onto the chest. Mandibuzz also gain a skirt of similar feathers to keep them and their chicks warm. Upon evolution a mandibuzz's tail grows in length. Young mandibuzz retain a hair tuft; older birds have entirely bald necks and heads. Mandibuzz have powerful wing muscles to compensate for their own weight.

Mandibuzz reach a maximum wingspan of two meters. Unadorned mandibuzz typically weigh about ten kilograms but bone ornaments can raise this to twelve or even fifteen kilograms. Mandibuzz can live up to fifty years in captivity or thirty in the wild.

Behavior

Contrary to popular belief, mandibuzz are exclusively scavengers. In fact their beaks are so weak that they struggle to break the skin of many pokémon. This leads to symbiotic relationships between mandibuzz prides and other large birds. In Alola, Galar, and parts of North America this relationship is formed with braviary companies, but in other parts of their range the prides attach to birds such as harpyre, rherhea, or South Island decidueye.

Mandibuzz play a key role in the lives of Alola's rufflet. While braviary are off hunting, some of the mandibuzz pride will stay back and keep an eye on the rufflet and vullaby. Others will fly over the land and use their keen sense of smell to find recently dead pokémon. The mandibuzz carries an older rufflet with them when they hunt. When a carcass is found the rufflet is dropped off on a tree branch. The mandibuzz will then carry the carcass up into the tree where the rufflet will cut it open. Both birds will share in the kill and the mandibuzz will pick out any bones she wants for herself or her vullaby. The pair will then return to the pride's nesting grounds.

The adornment of vullaby is primarily for defensive purposes. The young birds are periodically given skulls or other bones to guard themselves with. The bones are held in place with the thick, sticky spit of their mothers. Dense bone plating guards all the most vulnerable areas of a vullaby.

Mandibuzz adorn themselves with bones partially for defense. Some bones are carefully hidden under their feathers to safeguard organs. Others are visible. These bones are believed to be used for similar purposes to jewelry in humans. They are partially used for attracting mates, partially as a sign of their ability to successfully provide for their pride, and partially for simple self-expression. When members of two prides meet they often trade ideas for adornment. Trendsetting mandibuzz can have their fashion innovations spread across their entire archipelago in a matter of weeks.

Mandibuzz occasionally kill cubone. They only do this when food is abundant and there is leisure time. A mated pair or an unmated female and one of her mothers will perch in cubone habitat. When a cubone is alone, one mandibuzz will swoop down in front of it and begin to act aggressively. The goal is to take the cubone's club, but sufficient distraction will also work. When the cubone is open the other mandibuzz will fly in from behind, grab the cubone, and fly it into the air. After catching a thermal and rising as high as possible, the cubone will be dropped. If it survives the impact the process will be repeated as much as necessary. Cubone clubs are considered to be extremely valuable for ornamentation and their skulls, intact or cracked, are good for protection.

Prides tend to consist of five to eight mated pairs, a handful of unmated young adults, and their children. Young adults occasionally move between prides. While children are attached to their parents, childcare and almost all other tasks sans hunting and bone gathering are communal. Sick birds will be supported by other pride members.

Husbandry

Mandibuzz are relatively self-sufficient. They are easily housebroken and keep themselves clean. Mandibuzz and older vullaby will happily eat almost all forms of meat. Unlike most carnivorous birds, they will eat kibble on occasion. Raw or cooked meat is strongly preferred, though. In most areas it is legal to let mandibuzz scavenge on their own as they do not actively kill their prey. They will need to be accompanied by another pokémon capable of slicing skin open when prey is found. Some mandibuzz have learned how to use knives. This allows them to scavenge unsupervised. However, mandibuzz often see knives as very valuable bones and refuse to give them back under any circumstances.

Mandibuzz will often get their bones from their prey. Gifted bones will make them exceptionally happy. Cubone clubs and skulls are viewed as the highest quality bones of them all. A handful of specialty stores sell bones for mandibuzz. Vullaby will need proper skulls and feather-safe glue to secure them in place. If there is no mandibuzz around to do it, the trainer should either take lessons on bone crafting or have their armor custom made by a professional. Both options can be rather expensive.

Both mandibuzz and vullaby are very affectionate. While resting they prefer to cuddle with their trainer. They will often groom long-haired trainers whether or not it is wanted. Sometimes mandibuzz will present their trainer with interesting bones or shiny rocks or bits of metal as gifts. Wearing these will make the pokémon very happy. Many trainers are shocked to know that mandibuzz only communicate in growls and whistles. They do not have the ability to chirp or make many common bird sounds.

Vullaby will tolerate pokéballs for up to twelve hours a day. Pokéball tolerance varies by mandibuzz but most prefer to spend their day scavenging or socializing and their night near their trainer or teammates. The relative safety and comfort of pokéballs allow for neither and are therefore often rejected.

Mandibuzz are very caring Pokémon. They will look out for young teammates, children, and even their trainer. Several guides list mandibuzz as one of the best pokémon for households with young children as the birds will happily guard and play with infants, toddlers, and preteens. Teenagers hold less interest to mandibuzz, although teens going through goth, emo, or punk phases still manage to pique the bird's attention due to the similarities between the fashion and their own plumage. Dark clothing, long (or no) hair, and many accessories are good ways to gain a mandibuzz or vullaby's trust.

Illness

Between their powerful guts and obsessive grooming, mandibuzz almost never get sick. That does not mean that humans and other birds cannot get sick from them. Mandibuzz that scavenge naturally or eat raw meat tend to have a variety of illness-causing bacteria on their faces and in their droppings. Their waste should be handled with care and kept away from other birds. Cuddling and direct contact should only be done after a mandibuzz has had its face washed with warm water. Soap can irritate their skin and should be avoided.

Evolution

Vullaby grow in a series of growth spurts. Each can increase their weight by two to ten percent. These are very normal in vullaby and do not necessarily signal the approach of evolution. After large growth spurts mandibuzz (and trainers) must find the vullaby a new set of protective bone plating to wear. Around their fifth birthday vullaby begin to properly evolve. They will reject new sets of armor and gain thicker plumage over their entire body. Over the course of four to six months vullaby's neck will grow much, much longer and their wings become stronger.

In the wild evolution grants a mandibuzz almost all rights and privileges of a member of the pride. A few move to a different pride at this time to preserve genetic diversity. Once courtship is completed and a mate is selected (see Breeding), mandibuzz lose their head tuft and become full adults.

Battle

Mandibuzz are bulky birds. Unfortunately for them, skarmory and corviknight are bulkier and have more offensive power through sharp beaks and wings. Mandibuzz have barely any power at all and are only really able to injure foes through toxic. While they are durable for birds, possessing relatively dense skeletons and external armor, they are still mid-sized birds relying on bone armor. On the competitive circuits most offensive pokémon will wear them down before succumbing to poison damage. In addition to the metallic birds, dragons, mantine, and gliscor all perform the same role with either better bulk or more offensive power to compensate.

On the island challenge mandibuzz are less restricted. For the first few islands they will have enough power to hurt their foes and at the end of the challenge they will still be bulky enough to use a combination of roost, protect, substitute, and toxic poisoning to stall out many opponents. Offensive moves such as dark pulse or heat wave can help wear down opponents. Pokémon that take no damage from most poisons can cause mandibuzz serious trouble.

Vullaby are quite capable of pulling off a similar strategy. What they lack in mobility is made up for by greater protection. Due to the need to move their body and a heavy external shell, when the shell is removed or chipped away they can move somewhat quickly and strike with more power than would be expected from a young bird. Nasty plot can help make vullaby either powerful bulky special attackers or relative glass cannons. Unfortunately, by the later islands vullaby will be too weak to do much damage to opponents even after a boost.

Acquisition

Mandibuzz prides are typically found near braviary companies along the coasts of Alola. Conversely to braviary, mandibuzz are fiercely protective of their offspring but often willing to accompany trainers themselves. Wild vullaby can only be obtained by humans who have been well accepted by a pride through frequent visits and occasional gifts of meat and bones. Mandibuzz have some understanding of human culture and will occasionally gift a chick to the child of a human they are very close to as the kid embarks on their journey.

For the most part mated mandibuzz are content to remain where they are. Unmated mandibuzz can sometimes be impressed by gifts of bones and displays of power and friendship with other birds, especially birds of prey such as braviary, noctowl, and talonflame. Trainers with interesting clothing or accessories also get more attention than those with boring style choices. Mandibuzz also have a fascination with transgender trainers (especially those who very recently started hormone replacement therapy), intersex trainers, and female presenting trainers in a relationship with another female-presenting person.

Vullaby eggs can be purchased from some breeders and specialty stores but they are often rather expensive. Both stages may be acquired with a Class III license.

Breeding

Mandibuzz courtship takes place over the course of months or years as a prospective pair spend increasingly more time around each other and give several gifts. Mutual grooming is common. When the relationship is consummated both birds lose their head crests. Mandibuzz are ground nesting birds in most of their range but tend to build slightly elevated nests in Alola to deal with rattata. Their nests can be up to three meters across and are at minimum big enough to hold several chicks and both adults. The nests are often decorated with bones and interesting looking and smelling artifacts and branches.

A pair usually produces one litter whenever all chicks have evolved. There is no set breeding season. In some pair one partner will always lay the eggs and the others will always fertilize them. Others switch between litters.

In captivity mandibuzz generally form their strongest bond with their trainer. This often entirely precludes proper pairing and mating unless both birds were raised by humans from before their evolution and come to view them as parents rather than mates. Because of this complication and the difficulty of obtaining wild vullaby, mandibuzz breeding is best left to professionals.

Subspecies

Mandibuzz are found across almost all of North and South America and have been introduced to Galar and Alola. Both regions have had the northeastern mandibuzz introduced as they are the only subspecies that naturally partners with braviary. Most subspecies are similar in appearance and ecological role to the northeastern mandibuzz even if they bond with other raptors.

The most visually distinct subspecies is the Amazonian mandibuzz. These birds have white feathers over almost all of their body except for a black fringe at the edge of their wings. They are best known for their colorful necks and faces. Blue, purple, red, yellow, green, and orange are found in some pattern on almost all Amazonian mandibuzz. Rather than bones, these birds primarily display and attract mates through their natural coloration. Due to their relationship with harpyre, Amazonian mandibuzz have fire resistant feathers and a remarkable tolerance for smoke inhalation. Their blood is full of toxic chemicals from the smoke and makes them even more dangerous to eat than most subspecies. The subspecies is currently the only one assigned a poison- and flying-typing.


	45. Primeape

**Primeape (Mankey)**

Overview

Despite being among the closest pokémon relatives to humans, primate pokémon are some of the hardest to train. This is because humans have similar anatomy but often radically different mindsets than most other primates. Simple human behaviors such as eye contact and smiling can convince primate pokémon that they are facing a challenger to their mates, food, or territory.

Primeape are the textbook example for these problems. Eye contact or bared teeth will instantly set them on the warpath against other primates, humans included. Even intrusion into their space or being near the pokémon's typical feeding area can lead to fights. Because primape are strong enough to break steel in a few hits these are not fights the trainer can win.

Primeape are not recommended for beginners. Experienced pokémon trainers with an abundance of patience, a gentle presence, and at least one other pokémon strong enough to shut down challenges might be interested in training one.

Physiology

Both evolutionary stages are classified as pure fighting-types. The ruling is not controversial.

Mankey have very thick fur that hides the general shape of their body and makes them appear substantially larger than they are. The fur on their paws and at the tip of their tail tends to be slightly darker than that on the rest of their body. Mankey have long and powerful limbs. Both their hands and feet have long digits that can be moved independently of each other. Mankey's long tails are prehensile. Like primeape, mankey have large and prominent ears and pink noses that extend out of their fur.

In most ways primeape resemble a larger mankey. There are even scientists who argue that they should be merged into a single evolutionary stage. However, primeape have two notable external differences. First, primeape have pads over their buttocks referred to as sex glands. These are typically filled with blood and appear to be red. When a females ovulate her pads swell to signal her willingness to mate. Second, primeape's tails are proportionally much shorter than those of mankey.

Primeape are built to be flushed with adrenaline for long periods of time without serious damage. Their muscles repair themselves quickly, they have powerful hearts and lungs, and blood can be diverted from their brain towards their muscles without many consequences as a fight wears on. This allows primeape to continue fights or pursue intruders for far longer than any other primate pokémon species can. Primape's brains are almost uniquely capable of operating with minimal blood flow for extended periods of time.

Contrary to popular depictions, primeape and mankey are usually quadrupedal unless climbing or trying to make themselves appear bigger to intimidate opponents.

Male primeape can grow up to 1.2 meters long from their nose to the end of their tail. They can weigh up to 25 kilograms. Females seldom reach fifteen kilograms. Both males and females typically live for about forty years in the wild or sixty in captivity.

Behavior

Primeape live in strictly patriarchal troops. One male holds absolute authority and sires almost all children. The other males and females are kept in line. Non-dominant males in the troop behave much like females and assist in the childrearing of the troop's children (see Breeding).

Unsuccessful challengers to a troop's dominant male end in the challenger's death. Successful challengers leave the dominant male alive and do not kill his children to help maintain the loyalty of the new troop. Formerly dominant males also assist in defending the troop or in hunts. When a male primeape evolves they are kicked out. The newly evolved pokémon has a right of challenge, although failure ends in death. As such this option is seldom taken. Primeape who do not challenge their troop's dominant male will head out to find a bachelor troop or, rarely, a human trainer, and train in hopes of future conquest.

Genetic diversity in troops is maintained by "raids." These occur when all male primeape in a troop attack another troop at night and drag female mankey back to their camp. In a rare display of female social power these mankey have the right to visit their old troop so long as they return to their new one by sundown. Mankey approaching evolution will sometimes steal infants away for the day in mock raids. If the baby is killed or seriously injured during the course of the practice raid the offending male will be publicly executed by dismemberment.

Despite their aggressive reputation, primeape are almost entirely herbivorous. All troop members forage for grains, vegetables, and fruit during the day. While primape are omnivorous most of the flesh they consume is insects and small non-pokémon animals. These hunts appear to be more for sport than nutrition. In times of extreme scarcity the males may band together to hunt larger pokémon. Because food is abundant in Alola this has never been observed in the archipelago.

Unlike the other primates in Alola, ambipom, passimian, and oranguru, primeape do not make their homes in the trees. Instead they live on cliffs, either inland or by the coast, and use their long limbs and prehensile tails to climb up and down the rockworks. Because they do not eat eggs coastal birds usually leave them alone. Primeape are only preyed upon by the largest predators in Alola. Of those only salamence and metagross regularly attack a troop in their home.

Like most primates, primeape engage in social grooming to build bonds and maintain cleanliness.

Husbandry

The difficult process of bonding with a mankey or primeape is detailed in the Acquisition section. This section deals exclusively with caring for a pokémon that is already relatively docile.

In captivity mankey and primeape should be fed a mix of nuts, berries, tubers, vegetables, and grain. Fresh food is best but dried or canned food can work when on the trail for less than a week. Primate biscuits are relatively expensive but make for good treats. Peanut butter, honey, and commercially available cereals also make for good treats. Treats are best administered in puzzles, such as PVC pipe systems that must be manipulated in certain ways to get the treat out or by placing the treat in a frozen block of ice.

Both stages should be groomed at least once a day every day to keep them relatively docile. The pokémon will occasionally attempt to groom their trainer's back and should be allowed to do so. Primeape are surprisingly fond of small cute pokémon and will frequently play with them. This also helps keep them calm. Mirrors and very durable toys can work as enrichment objects. Rubber and metal playsets can also work so long as the pokémon is monitored to keep them from trying to eat inedible components. Very friendly primeape and mankey can be played with using laser pointers. Curiously, wind chimes have a very strong calming effect on primape.

The biggest difficulty in caring for the line, and primeape in particular, is avoiding accidental displays of aggression. Primeape communicate friendly intentions through grunts and tongue clicking. These should be done often around primeape and mankey. Screams, barks, eyebrow raising, staring, eye contact, teeth baring, yawning while looking at the pokémon, and hitting the ground signal aggression. Because barking is an aggressive signal it is best to not raise primeape and particularly exciteable canines on the same team. More withdrawn canines such as ninetales (but not vulpix), umbreon, and manectric can work as partners. Pokémon with a penchant for staring, such as mime sr., are incompatible with primeape.

Primeape are relatively intelligent and considerate pokémon when in a healthy relationship with their trainer. They are easily housebroken and will sometimes attempt to help with housework. While they can be trusted to babysit children and young pokémon, other help should be politely declined as primeape have a tendency to accidentally break objects.

Illness

Sick primeape and mankey often show similar symptoms to sick humans. Mild respiratory illnesses are best treated through humidity and Vitamin C. Anything more severe should be handled by a veterinarian as sick primeape can be incredibly temperamental.

The alpine primeape's population has been sharply reduced over the last thirty years by an infectious venereal disease. Any male primeape that becomes infected with the bacteria will at minimum become sterile and will typically die slowly and painfully over the course of the next month. The Japanese government has prohibited the exportation or capture of alpine primeape since 1995 and has culled or removed most lowland primeape in the area to prevent the illness from spreading. The quarantine procedures have been successful, if controversial, as of press time.

Evolution

Mankey typically evolve around their second birthday. Unlike most species frequent battle does not result in faster growth rates. The formal demarcation of evolution and the point where male primeape are kicked out of the troop and female primeape are eligible reproductive partners is the first swelling of the sex glands.

Battle

Primeape, and especially the Chinese primeape, are ferocious battlers with very strong attacks. Outside of China they are still relatively unpopular choices due to the difficulty in training them. Other fighting-types such as machamp and hariyama can hit even harder and tank more hits. Primeape's agility is impressive, but hawlucha are stronger and faster than primeape and have the ability to take to the air. Furthermore, even well-trained primeape are known to ignore orders during the heat of battle.

Hawlucha are banned from most state-sanctioned tournaments in China. The ban, combined with the cultural significance of primeape (see Subspecies), has led to primeape being reasonably popular as a revenge killer and wallbreaker. Their ability to jump rather high in the air and strike birds with a thunder or ice energy-infused punch makes primeape relatively effective anti-air pokémon.

Any trainer who can command a primeape is unlikely to need it on the island challenge. In any case, primeape and mankey function best when they hit hard and fast and never give the opponent a moment to rest. More complicated strategies are generally inadvisable because primeape may ignore critical orders and doing anything other than attacking gives opponents a chance to exploit the pokémon's relative frailty. Training should focus on power, jumping, and use of elemental moves.

Acquisition

Primeape are most commonly found on the coastal cliffs of Melemele and Poni. During the day they can be found in plains and forests near their home base. There are two approaches to capturing one. Recently evolved male primeape and male mankey close to evolution will sometimes challenge a nearby trainer to test their strength. If the trainer is successful, the pokémon will agree to come along with relatively little fuss. As male primeape are larger than females and this approach involves less resistance, it is the better path when possible. Unfortunately it requires relying on a primeape or mankey to make a given decision.

Proactive primeape hunting must target females. This approach, as well as the first, works better for male trainers. If a female primeape is found hunting alone she can be ambushed. After a few attacks land, capture can be attempted. This simulates a raid and makes the female more inclined to trust their trainer than they might otherwise be. However, if the trainer plans to frequently leave the primeape's home range they will break the implicit promises that underpin raids in the wild. This will cause the female to become extremely rebellious for several months or even years.

Calming primeape down requires acting in a dominant role. Many trainers mistake dominance for cruelty, which it is not. Instead trainers should set clear boundaries and enforce them through mild punishments. A stronger pokémon than the primeape should be kept on hand for at least the first few weeks in order to quash challenges. Rewards and attempted bonding should be more common than punishments. Eventually the primeape will give in and start accepting treats and grooming. Many trainers are initially scared that this is only an act of deception but primeape seldom bother to hide their true intentions. Rejecting attempts at reconciliation will only drive the primeape further away.

Mankey can be captured with a Class IV license or adopted or purchased with a Class III. Primeape require a Class IV license to obtain.

Breeding

In the wild female primeape in heat will approach the dominant male and display her sex glands. Occasionally a formerly dominant male will elope with a female in secret. This is one of the few times that primeape engage in deceptive behavior.

Pregnancy typically lasts ten to twelve weeks at which point a single mankey will be born. All members of the troop collectively care for the children. Surprisingly even the males are very fond of infants and will let the baby crawl all over them. Zoo populations have been known to treat small pokémon that enter their enclosure as beloved pets. Trainer-owned primeape often help raise smaller or younger pokémon and are even competent at caring for human infants.

Captive breeding is not recommended outside of zoos. Males that lead a troop tend to behave very aggressively towards all humans, including formerly trusted trainers.

Subspecies

Buddhist monks brought lowland primeape to Alola in the early Nineteenth Century. These primeape are native to the central regions of Japan. Unlike the Alolan population they tend to live on the walls of canyons and in the rocky cliffs near glacial highlands.

Alpine primeape are native to the mountains of Sinnoh. They are well known for their fluffy white fur and fondness for bathing in hot springs. Far and away the calmest subspecies, alpine primeape routinely venture into small settlements on Mt. Tengan. They are a tourist attraction in Kannagi Town due to their fearlessness. Locals are very tolerant of the pokémon and they have historically protected each other from threats. The alpine primeape conservation program is formally based in Kannagi, although most of the employees work in the larger city of Tobari.

Chinese primeape are the largest and most famous subspecies due to their prominent role in Chinese folklore. Buddhist monks in particular have a long history of raising primeape. Managing to bond with creatures famous for their powerful rage was a sign of spiritual power. Conveniently, the primeape also made powerful allies in eras where Buddhism was disfavored.

Chinese primeape are classified as dual fighting- and fairy-types due to the variety of strange tricks they can wield, such as distorting the size of objects. Magic, while a nebulous concept in and of itself, is often associated with the Chinese primeape. They are said to have been the guardians of heaven and the peaks. Chinese primeape are one of the few pokémon known to practice agriculture and have selectively bred peaches for millennia.


	46. Delibird

**Delibird**

Overview

Delibird are known as compassionate healers, guides, and messengers. A variety of arctic peoples used tame delibird to communicate between tribes separated by inhospitable tundras or frozen seas. Their playful demeanor and colorful appearance led to them being adopted as messengers of The Northern Saint by the Church of Life. Although the Church has phased out delibird's use as sacred messengers following recent discoveries the birds remain a worldwide symbol of winter, gift giving, and holiday celebrations.

The species is undeniably playful but their gregarious nature and relatively low power make them a poor choice for trainers on the island challenge.

Physiology

Delibird are classified as dual ice- and flying-type pokémon.

A thick coat of short red feathers covers most of delibird's body. A "beard" of fluffy white feathers extends below delibird's face. Two crests of very long white feathers extend above the eyes like eyebrows. Delibird's beak is covered in white and red stripes. While not as big as toucannon, the beak of and adult is big enough to store at least two wishiwashi. The size and shape of the Alolan delibird's beak is not seen in other subspecies and is believed to come from interbreeding with toucannon. Delibird have yellow webbed feet.

While their wings are proportionally small, delibird can control their descent and maintain altitude to a degree. Flight is primarily used to get down from their nest to the water or to make a particularly powerful jump when scaling cliffs. Alternatively, delibird can get airborne for mid-distance low altitude flights with a running start. Delibird are primarily aquatic and can dive up to one hundred meters.

Delibird are the only known bird with a prehensile tail. This is used to wrap up berries, fish, and interesting objects while exploring or returning to the nest. The tail of Alolan delibird is smaller than their arctic counterparts, but is still large enough to wrap up a wishiwashi or a few berries.

Adults are about one meter in height and typically weigh three kilograms. They have a life expectancy of six years in the wild or ten in captivity.

Behavior

Delibird are gregarious and live in carols of fifteen to fifty birds. However, they hunt alone. Most of delibird's diet is made up of fish and invertebrates, including small water- and bug-type pokémon. They hunt by either flying just above the surface until they see prey or by diving and chasing prey underwater. Hunting takes up most of a delibird's waking hours. The remainder is spent socializing with other birds and exploring their surroundings.

Even by bird standards, delibird are curious. They are prone to making and playing games with other delibird and even other species, going onto land to try new berries, and using seashells and stones as toys. Their curiosity or gregarious nature leads them to approach humans and pokémon and exchange gifts or attempt to play. When pokémon, including prey species, are starving delibird will occasionally share some of their catch with them. This habit combined with the relatively low nutritional value of delibird leads to the birds having almost no regular predators.

While Alolan delibird are not properly migratory, pairs and unpaired subadults sometimes move between carols on separate islands. Delibird can determine their location using Earth's magnetic field and use this information to return to places they have been before.

Spending more than a few days away from cool water will lead to overheating.

Husbandry

Delibird captivity is best handled by well-resourced stationary individuals able to raise at least ten delibird at once. When held alone or in very small groups delibird grow stressed and begin to develop health problems. Climate control is also important to delibird and makes it very difficult to care for them while on the trails of Alola. Freeze balls help mitigate the problem but delibird dislike pokéballs and will not tolerate even freeze balls for more than an hour or two a day. When possible delibird should be kept in quarters that are sixty degrees or cooler. Cold baths in room temperature areas can also satisfy the bird.

If a trainer wants to raise a single delibird than it is recommended to keep other birds on the team. At least three hours a day should be spent either directly playing with the delibird or being present while other birds play with the pokémon. Enrichment objects should be purchased frequently enough that the pokémon never grows bored with all of their toys. The pokémon will almost always want to sleep in their trainer's bed. Mirrors make for good enrichment items that also have a calming effect on delibird held as individuals. Ditto are the best teammates for alleviating social stress.

About 80% of delibird's diet should be made up of fish. Most fish are preferred whole, but individual birds may prefer certain species cut down to smaller sizes. The remaining 20% should be made up of insect mixes, shrimp, crabs, or brine shrimp. Zooplankton mixes, while somewhat expensive, also work. Many large facilities keep zooplankton and crabs living in the diving pond for enrichment purposes. Berries make for good treats but should not be a routine part of the bird's diet. Delibird should be offered a little bit more than they will eat. Only birds with a history of starvation will regularly overeat. Drinking water is unnecessary but occasionally used for either proper drinks or as a toy.

Climbing structures and water at least seven feet deep should be provided whenever possible. Most large pokémon centers have bunk beds and pools which can satisfy both needs. Delibird should be exposed to salt water at least once every two weeks to keep their salt glands functional. If this is not possible small amounts of salt should be added to their drinking water or baths.

Delibird can be housebroken, although the process usually takes several weeks. It is easier if another housebroken bird is already on the team. Toucannon tend to be bad influences on delibird and make housebreaking nearly impossible.

Captive delibird held in large carols are often used as messengers to deliver small packages and letters between cities and islands. In the winter they are often taken to malls. Their bright colors, curiosity, and relative comfort with humans make them popular with children. The best way to train a delibird to be a carrier is for another delibird to teach them. This is not recommended for traveling trainers as the stress of separation can cause negative health impacts on the removed pokémon.

Illness

Delibird are frequent carriers of avian influenza. While the disease is relatively benign in delibird it can spread and do serious damage to other teammates. Vaccination is strongly encouraged. Bumblefoot is a more common problem than avian influenza in stationary carols. The disease manifests as sores on the bottom of delibird's feet. While not contagious, if one delibird in a carol has it most probably will develop it in time. The best remedy for bumblefoot is preventive management: slightly rough surfaces should replace very rough and very smooth ones. This better replicates their natural cliff homes.

Angel wing is the most common health problem among fledging delibird. Sometimes feathers come in before the wing has fully developed. The weight of the feathers can cause permanent damage to the delibird's wing. Fledglings should be routinely inspected and slings should be provided as necessary.

Delibird generally do everything in their power to mask their injuries and keep acting as if nothing is wrong. By the time any symptoms, such as deviation in weight or weakness or pain in a given area, is visible to the trainer the problem is already serious and should be treated by a professional as soon as possible.

When a delibird living in a stationary carol develops a contagious disease or is about to be introduced to a carol or reintroduced after exposure to toher birds, they must be quarantined. The quarantine process is unpleasant for delibird as they must be alone for some time. Taking multiple delibird on trips can at least allow them to be quarantined together. Otherwise mirrors or exposures to live or recorded delibird sounds can help calm the isolated bird. Toys, climbing structures, and a pool deep enough to swim in should be in the quarantine room.

Evolution

N/A

Battle

In conspecific and interspecies aggression, delibird tend to rely on puffing up their feathers and making noise. If neither side backs down delibird employ bites, pecks, or weak ice attacks. While delibird have elemental wells they are not particularly deep. While delibird are technically a pokémon many baseline animals can beat them in a fight. As such only delibird deliberately trained to battle have any skill at all. Needless to say that outside of scripted holiday specials no ranked trainer has ever been seen using a delibird.

On the island challenge delibird isn't useless. They make for decent arena controllers between spikes and icy wind. While their flight isn't good enough to make them untouchable it can be used to dodge telegraphed attacks and hit a little bit harder than they otherwise could. By the time the second island ends delibird will start to become less useful. Trainers raising a delibird should do so in spite of its power and not because of it.

Acquisition

Delibird can be found in in the cool waters around Mt. Lanakila and Kala'e Bay. Due to recent declines in the Ula'Ula population capture is restricted to Melemele. Delibird can sometimes be found out at sea but capture is prohibited more than one hundred meters from land. Birds that do not wish to be caught will sometimes make a dash to the ocean when a trainer confronts them. Delibird can be captured or purchased with a Class II license.

The birds can be purchased from established carols on Melemele, Akala, and Ula'Ula. Adoption opportunities are rare as injured or abandoned delibird tend to be donated to privately owned carols.

Breeding

While once popular with the Church of Life, delibird have been quietly abandoned as an official symbol after research found that roughly half of delibird are accidentally gay. The only way to determine the sex of a delibird is through DNA testing or minor surgery. Apparently delibird cannot determine the sex of other birds. Several zoroark, primarina, and psychics have translated delibird as saying that this is not a problem as the information would be useless. The reason delibird give for the question's irrelevance is that they do not know their own sex until they either lay an egg or fertilize one.

Delibird mate for life. Couples find a small tunnel in a cave or in a cliffface and set up their nest there. In anticipation of the summer breeding season all delibird undergo a full molt and are temporarily flightless and featherless. It is illegal to capture or otherwise disturb them during this time. Delibird's summer plumage is more vibrant than their winter coloration, which is somewhat ironic given their cultural associations. The linkage of delibird and winter is because the Europeans only saw delibird when they migrated south to avoid the bitter cold.

Fertile couples lay a single egg every season. Infertile couples stay together even after realizing their mistake but tend to help fertile couples in guarding their eggs and gathering food. The eggs are viciously guarded from all interlopers. This season is when delibird are most aggressive to outsiders. Capture is legal but discouraged in early May. Trainers should only enter Seaward Cave and the coastal caves of Lanakila during these weeks if they are prepared to be swarmed by angry birds. Eggs take forty days to hatch and forty days to fledge. Babies are typically abandoned by their parents thirty to sixty days after hatching.

Captive delibird breeding requires the provision of at least 1, and ideally 1.5, nest boxes per pairs. If at all possible an even number of delibird should be owned. Unpaired birds tend to become very aggressive up to the point of sabotaging other nests and destroying eggs. Incubation of eggs and hand raising of chicks is possible and the resulting pokémon tend to acclimate well to private carols, but not the wild. Delibird reared by their parents do adjust well to the wild and these chicks play a major role in restoring the Ula'ula population.

Subspecies

Delibird subspecies can be sorted into four groups.

The Alolan delibird is the only tropical subspecies. It is not presently understood when and how delibird arrived on the islands. They were already present when Japanese settlers arrived and, according to Alolan folklore, they were present when the Seafolk arrived as well. Temperate delibird do not migrate far enough to reach Alola and polar delibird would die from overheating well before reaching the mid-Pacific.

Temperate delibird live year-round in the mid-latitudes of the North Atlantic. Typically a carol will be permanently based out of an area infused with ice-energy or directly cooled by other pokémon. While members will often swim away from the carol's home to find food they typically return by sundown. Some temperate subspecies have barely functional salt glands due to swimming almost exclusively in glacial meltwater or underground rivers.

There are two subspecies of polar delibird, one in the Pacific and one in the Atlantic. The Atlantic population tends to overwinter in Iceland, Greenland, and other northern islands. They migrate as far south as Africa during the summer but are rarely seen near the coast. Both polar delibird subspecies spend almost all of their lives alone at sea, only returning to land and their mates for a few months every summer. The Pacific delibird are less migratory with summer breeding occurring in Kamatchka and Alaska and winter migration bringing birds to Japan and Oregon. Some interbreeding with temperate subspecies has been reported.

The Himalayan delibird is perhaps the strangest subspecies, in no small part because they only live hundreds of kilometers inland and are barely aquatic. They are the largest subspecies and have the most developed wings. Himalyan delibird take shelter on the steep cliffs of crevasses. While they do sometimes break into frozen or temporarily thawed lakes to fish, these delibird primarily eat small non-pokémon mammals, eggs, and plants. The pokémon are considered sacred wardens of the mountains and capture or export is strictly prohibited. The few captive specimens were injured or otherwise unable to survive in the wild. They are held in the Kathmandu Zoo on loan from the Nepalese government.


	47. Hawlucha

**Hawlucha**

Overview

For centuries Europeans were fascinated (and frequently defeated) by the hawlucha of the Aztec Triple Alliance and its successor states, including modern Anahuac. Despite the best efforts of American and European scientists no hawlucha ever survived for more than a month outside of Mesoamerica until 1987.

At the end of the Third Thanksgiving War the United States conditioned peace on the surrender of one thousand hawlucha and information on how to care for them. Emperor Necalli IV agreed. He was subsequently executed for treason by the captain of the eagle warriors. Twenty-two years of civil war followed.

North of the border captive care proved possible but the hawlucha never bred. In order to avoid another war the captain of the eagle warriors made a public trip to Washington where he gave more information on husbandry and breeding. The captain proceeded to execute himself for treason during a press conference on the White House lawn.

Alola is fortunate enough to host one of the hawlucha wards established and overseen by the United States military. While they can only be captured after the island challenge is completed they make invaluable partners for any trainers planning to challenge the Elite Four or otherwise go pro.

Physiology

Hawlucha are classified as dual fighting- and flying-types. While barely capable of proper flight, hawlucha are skilled at channeling flying elemental energy to perform moves such as sky attack. The secondary typing, while controversial, was recently reaffirmed by the Department of Agriculture.

Many bird pokémon are carnivorous or insectivorous. The rest mostly eat nuts, fruit, or nectar. Despite their reputation as fierce warriors, hawlucha are one of very few that primarily eat leaves. Most hawlucha live in the forests and mountains of southern Anahuac. The species is uniquely adapted to their habitat and diet.

Hawlucha's crop, a pouch near their esophagus, is much larger than other birds. The enlarged crop combined with resident bacteria allow hawlucha to digest leaves. As a side effect of the bacteria and rumination process hawlucha almost always smell like cow manure. Unfortunately, the size of the crop means that the wing muscles must be smaller. The species compensates for their somewhat awkward flight with powerful leg muscles and claws at the end of their wings. They move through dense forests by climbing up and jumping between trees, with the occasional glide used to avoid a predator or cross a river. Hawlucha's movements as closer to passimian than trumbeak.

The birds' coloration has long confused scientists. Their flesh tastes unpleasant but is not outright toxic. Bright colors—white on the stomach and legs, blood red on the back of the wings, light green on the head, orange on the crest—may help signal this. Other features do not fit this theory. Like several insect species hawlucha have false faces that make them look larger than they are. A pink circle resembling an open mouth is located beneath the beak and their actual, small eyes are surrounded by rings of feathers designed to look like much larger eyes. These may be useful for scaring off rivals in territorial fights.

Hawlucha can reach weights of 2.4 kilograms and heights of 70 centimeters. Little is known about their wild lifespan at this time. Anahuac's records placed their captive lifespan around seven years but this was in an environment of frequent battle. Hawlucha not used in warfare may live longer. However, hawlucha outside of Anahuac often die well before seven years of age in captivity.

Behavior

Wild hawlucha spend about half their day foraging for the specific mix of leaves and flowers they feed upon. Another third is spent sleeping. The remaining few hours are spent exploring the area, socializing with younger hawlucha, or engaging in intraspecies or interspecies showfights. Although they live in the dense forests of inland Melemele, hawlucha often enter Route 3 to challenge braviary and rufflet to practice matches. In the interior forests territorial and mating conflicts are resolved by battle. Neither fights with braviary nor hawlucha tend to result in permanent injury. Hawlucha are known for their very precise movements and strikes that let them scar opponents with their claws yet do little more than superficial damage.

Beyond moving between trees hawlucha can also use their claws and jumps to navigate areas with many rocky outcroppings or even dense cityscapes. The Bittern Peak area of Route 3 is practically a playground to them.

Hawlucha are very vocal birds. They are likely to be heard—and smelled—well before they are seen. Along with their physical fights with rufflet and braviary, hawlucha sometimes engage in singing contests with trumbeak. At least one hawlucha has been observed interacting with a brionne choir. Another was sighted in Melemele Meadow mimicking oricorio dances.

After eating hawlucha are temporarily much heavier and have difficulty moving, much less flying. They will perch in the tree they just ate from and sleep for several hours before either looking for more food, returning to their nest, or seeking out opportunities to play.

Husbandry

The main problem with hawlucha care is their diet. The birds will only eat the leaves of a handful of plants native to a small portion of Mesoamerica. While there are a few farms and military installations that have started growing the plants the slow growth rate of the trees means that most leaves still have to be imported. Hawlucha eat about one quarter of their body weight every day. Their trainer need to have a steady supply of expensive and somewhat bulky plants.

Leaves make up 90% of a hawlucha's diet. Another 9% is made up of flowers, which hawlucha are much less picky about. The last 1% should be fruit. Fruit preferences vary from individual to individual. Water should be offered at least once a day even if the bird does not always accept it.

Hawlucha need time to rest after meals. As a rule they hate pokéballs so this will need to happen outside of the ball. On the trail they are perfectly content to nap on their trainer's shoulder for a few hours, although they are deceptively heavy birds and not all trainers can handle the dead weight. Having a bird that smells like manure perched inches away from your nose can also be unpleasant.

Beyond their diet hawlucha require much in the way of enrichment accommodations. The best partners for hawlucha are willing to spar and fight without risk of serious injury. Disciplined fighting-types such as the machop and makuhita lines make good partners as hawlucha learn to hit relatively hard and avoid hits in return and their opponent learns how to strike a very fast target. Song or dance focused pokémon can also make for good partners. Lilligant, oricorio, trumbeak, and primarina are good at providing this type of enrichment. Finally pokémon able to keep up with hawlucha in parkour chases can be useful partners. Passimian are a good choice but mankey can sometimes get too aggressive. Persian enjoy the game but hate having the scent around them, making them better occasional playmates than full-time partners. In general pokémon with keen senses of smell tend not to like hawlucha much. Snorlax is a notable exception and hawlucha sometimes enjoy using the bear's stomach as a trampoline for acrobatics practice.

Hawlucha cannot be housebroken. They tend to defecate right before or after leaving their perch.

Illness

As carriers of avian influenza hawlucha will need to be routinely vaccinated. If their diet is not very close to the ideal hawlucha will at first become rather sluggish before eventually becoming extremely aggressive. Care should be taken to maintain the proper diet at all times.

Battle

The eagle warriors of Anahuac have a rather unique fighting style that incorporates hawlucha. The pokémon jump off the large shields carried by the humans and make a strategic swipe at an enemy to break their wrist or ankle. The bird will then either jump on to another opponent or back to their trainer's shield to get another assisted launch. The eagle warrior will practically run through the battlefield behind the hawlucha to finish wounding and tagging the humans left behind. The rapid pace of combat does leave the warriors at a disadvantage against extremely bulky pokémon. These were uncommon companions in the early colonial era but the mass produced pokéball and broader international trade networks allowed the empire's enemies to make sure they had an adequate supply.

Anahuac has suffered several military defeats since 1876 and declined in influence in large part because hawlucha became less effective on the battlefield.

In competitive tournaments hawlucha are still very effective. They strike hard enough to break bones and sever tendons in all but the bulkiest of pokémon. Hawlucha are also incredibly agile and in arenas that are not entirely flat they can make good use of vertical space. Even on a flat battlefield hitting a hawlucha with anything but an area of effect or homing attack can be difficult. While solid walls do break hawlucha's momentum this is less important in sports than war. Eventually hawlucha's hits add up. So long as they are not hit hawlucha may even find opportunities to use bulk up or swords dance. If hawlucha have a type advantage, as with bulky steel, rock, normal, and fighting-type opponents, the match will probably end in their favor.

Unfortunately hawlucha are saddled with two glaring weaknesses. The first is that hawlucha are rather frail. One or two good hits from a professional trainer's pokémon can usually take them out. The second is that hawlucha rarely strike to kill in either wild showfights or on the field of battle. In Anahuac capturing an enemy soldier alive is seen as far more honorable than killing them. As a result when they start to gain an advantage hawlucha instinctively switch to trying to taunt and scare their opponent into surrender. This loss of momentum and momentary distraction can sometimes allow their opponent to get in a knockout blow.

Hawlucha excel in acrobatic and melee attacks. Supporting moves are generally not advised as hawlucha need to constantly be dodging or attacking and will seldom find a moment to pull them off. Protect is an exception as a way to block the rare hit that can't be dodged. Boosting moves are also useful if hawlucha faces off with something weak or slow enough that there is no imminent danger of being knocked out.

Acquisition

Hawlucha can only be captured on Route 3 with a Class V license. Adoption and purchase also require a Class V license. They adjust well to capture so long as a proper battle was performed beforehand.

While international laws are seldom worth mentioning, trainers with a desire to travel should know that owning a hawlucha without proper authorization is considered treason in Anahuac. The only punishment for treason is death.

Breeding

Wild hawlucha live in mated pairs. They do not usually mate for life but most pairings last at least two breeding seasons. Wild hawlucha are known to engage in elaborate performative copulation to mark their territory. Proper mating with the intent to breed is much more restrained and takes place in November. Hawlucha eggs hatch after a six week incubation period. Children are abandoned shortly after fledging around six weeks of age.

Captive breeding of hawlucha is extremely difficult and requires a near-perfect replica of their natural habitat. The Imperial Palace and Tenochtitlan's Temple of Xōchipilli contain large greenhouses devoted to hawlucha care. Before the modern era the greenhouses were large indoor chambers with proper temperatures and humidity maintained by resident fire- and water- type pokémon. These two facilities, along with a similar one in the Bronx Zoo, are the only places hawlucha have ever bred in captivity. Trainers interested in breeding their hawlucha should contact the Bronx Zoo.

Subspecies

N/A


	48. Oricorio

**Oricorio**

Overview

Whatever else can be said about them, oricorio are extremely versatile pokémon. Every individual is capable of taking four different forms with varying personalities, typings, and battle styles. While some oricorio have a preference for one form or another most do not. This gives trainers four separate tries at connecting with their pokémon. Forms can also be changed for important battles.

Oricorio's drawbacks are in acquisition and logistics. They are rare outside of nature preserves with somewhat strict annual catch quotas. Nectar is somewhat expensive and rather heavy. Most trainers also cannot meaningfully contribute to their oricorio's training and fighting style.

Even with the specie's drawbacks, dancers and trainers looking for a versatile pokémon would do well to take the time to learn the laws and set aside time to capture an oricorio.

Physiology

The four forms, or styles, of oricorio all have different typings. Pom-pom style oricorio are classified as electric- and flying-type pokémon, although their limited flight ability has led to some contention about their flying typing. Pa'u style oricorio are classified as psychic- and flying-type pokémon. Baile style oricorio are classified as fire- and flying-type pokémon. Sensu style oricorio are classified as ghost- and flying-type pokémon.

All four forms are relatively small bird pokémon with a typical songbird build. All have relatively strong legs and solid balance. Baile style oricorio are the only form that is more comfortable in the air than on the ground although style oricorio can fly in a pinch. Pom-pom and pa'u oricorio can only jump and control their fall with air current manipulation.

Pom-pom oricorio are built more like hawlucha than most bird pokémon. They have short wings with bulky puffs of feathers at the ends. Electrical charges build up in these feathers between attacks and pom-pom oricorio can unleash powerful shocks at the start of battles. Between hits pom-pom oricorio can pull off impressive acrobatic feats. This style's skeleton still has the same composition as the others which limits its ability to take hits or deal powerful blows.

Pa'u style oricorio are almost entirely dependent upon their dances. Only six flight feathers—three at the end of each wing—survive the transformation into this form. The rest of their body is coated in soft pink feathers as well as ornamental skirts and head tufts of white feathers. Pa'u style oricorio are masters at channeling ambient psychic energy into telepathic, empathic, and telekinetic attacks. On balance they are slow walkers and weak jumpers.

Baile style oricorio have the most conventional avian body shape. While they sometimes do take bipedal stances their dances are mostly performed in flight. The style's fireproof feathers are mostly red with occasional fringes of black feathers. Small white spiral patterns rest on the bird's cheeks. Baile oricorio produce fire with every flap of their wings. They can control and shape the flames with their dances.

Sensu oricorio have similar to baile oricorio with a slightly more bipedal stance. Their feathers colors can vary wildly between individuals but usually include some mix of purple, pink, and blue. Sensu style's powers are more similar to pa'u than the other forms as they manipulate ambient energy rather than creating it. Specifically, sensu oricorio channel the spirits and ghost energy of the area around them into curses, semi-tangible minions, and weak elemental attacks. They rival human channelers in communicating with the spirits of the dead. Mediums seldom employ the birds, however, because they are remarkably cruel beneath their elegant façade.

All four styles subsist entirely on nectar. Their digestive system has many similarities to crobat as a result of their liquid diet. Oricorio spend most of their day feeding with almost all of the rest spent sleeping. Perhaps an hour or two a day is spent dancing for passing humans and local pokémon. They were traditionally believed to be oracles of the tapus. Their dances were often imitated by the priests of pre-annexation Alola until they were banned, first by an Alolan king in 1834 and again by the provisional government after a brief period of legality in the latter years of the Kingdom. While many of the traditional dances have been lost to time and suppression there are attempts to relearn them from surviving documents and the dances of modern oricorio.

All styles grow to weighs of approximately 0.5 kilograms although their heights vary. Oricorio can live for fifteen years in the wild and captivity.

Behavior

No style of oricorio had relatively few predators before contact with Japan and China. Invasive species such as gumshoos and raticate have dramatically changed this situation. Pom-pom and pa'u oricorio are also unable to take to the skies to avoid domestic predators. Raticate in particular wiped out the pa'u style oricorio before the remaining portions of Akala Meadow were barricaded off and rigorously patrolled. Oricorio introduced from other islands have established a new wild population.

Pom-pom oricorio dealt with the most predators in the past, mostly in the form of the large birds and dragons that roost near Melemele Meadow. Pom-pom style's electricity and near flightlessness help them survive by hiding in the tall flowers of the meadow and shocking anything that does come too close. New predators have forced them to roost in the sparse trees of the meadow and rely on their electricity to deter flying pokémon. On the ground they are still vulnerable to raticate and gumshoos attacks. The style's high energy leads to a need to consume even more nectar than the other styles. On balance they sleep somewhat less.

Pa'u oricorio benefited from the nature of Akala Meadow. Powerful and intelligent psychics often met in the meadow as it was a good central location between the xatu of the south, the oranguru of the north, and the slowking of the coast. Tapu Lele was also a frequent visitor. The pa'u flowers that dominate the meadow also absorb psychic energy and slowly radiate it out. All of the ambient energy allowed pa'u oricorio to channel it into devastating mind control and telekinetic attacks when needed. While incineroar were not deterred, torracat were. Pa'u oricorio took to killing any torracat that came near the meadow until incineroar all but entirely stopped hunting them. Raticate do not have a non-dark juvenile form. Even if they did the desperation of the average rattata would probably make oricorio's power a rather poor deterrent. Because pa'u oricorio traditionally sleep on the ground at night and rattata can navigate through even thick flowerbeds rather easily the oricorio were easily killed.

Before the introduction of many invasive species the dominant predators on Ula'Ula were ninetales, incineroar, metagross, and flygon. Metagross have always been comparatively rare and flygon seldom leave the Haina Valley. For their part incineroar shied away from the extremely rainy western Ula'Ula. Ninetales and vulpix were the only predators that often slunk down into the meadow to feed. The flames of the baile oricorio have several unique properties to deter ninetales and survive in their environment. Rain and water do little to hamper their fire. Ninetales ability to create temporary blizzards is also undercut by the mystical nature of baile oricorio's flames. The bird's feathers are largely waterproof and they do not seem to mind water much at all. Baile flowers are remarkably fire resistant and brush fires were uncommon in the meadow. Trees fared less well with the frequent flames from dancing oricorio and there are rather few in the meadow. This has come to be a problem for baile oricorio who cannot easily retreat to higher ground despite being able to fly. Conservationists have helped by adding metal perches designed to be unclimbable by rattata and yungoos and too sturdy to be knocked over by raticate and gumshoos. The remaining threats on Ula'Ula—the ghosts and honchkrow—have always been reluctant to attack any form of oricorio.

Sensu oricorio have relatively little direct power to protect them in a fight. Nothing, not even rattata, dares to attack them. Poni meadow is filled by translucent specters raised by the resident oricorio. These beings help gather nectar for sensu oricorio and keep an eye out for intruders. While sensu oricorio have always allowed humans and other intelligent beings to come to them for guidance they do not like to be surprised. What makes sensu oricorio nigh-unassailable is their cruelty and intelligence. When stressed they resort to two basic defenses—curses and apparitions. Curses tend to cause long term physical and mental health problems for the victim that, if they do not result in death, can make the victim wish that they did. While many ghosts (and ninetales) can cast curses those of sensu oricorio are among the most psychologically brutal. It is believed that the spirits of the dead communicate with oricorio to inform the bird of personal vulnerabilities to exploit. Alternatively, oricorio can simply summon dead loved ones or enemies of their target. Oricorio can control the apparition and make it say things designed to thoroughly break the victim. Their mere presence is a large part of the reason why few souls have dared to live in the eastern half of Poni Island.

Husbandry

The biggest drawback of oricorio is their diet. They only consume nectar from one of four plants, all rare. Outside of their meadows oricorio's food alone can cost up to $300 a month for a relatively small bird. Liquid diets also mean that oricorio constantly need to urinate and are borderline impossible to housebreak. Even brief periods without food can cause serious health problems.

There is also little literature on oricorio husbandry. Much of the traditional knowledge has been lost. It was never common in any case as priests preferred to simply live near the meadows and observe the oricorio in their natural habitat. Only curious birds interested in living with humans, as well as some of their descendants, were ever held in captivity. They were usually kept within a short distance of the meadows. Widespread husbandry is still very new and mostly limited to a handful of zoos hoping to bolster wild populations with a captive breeding program.

What the literature does reveal is that oricorio's cognition changes when they shift forms. The same basic preferences and attachments will remain filtered through a different personality. As most specimens come to prefer whatever form they are currently in their trainer can mostly pick what sort of pokémon they want and even try again to start a productive relationship.

In general pom-pom oricorio are the most energetic and outgoing. While generally very friendly they do not shy away from making their displeasure known, mostly through small shocks and songs that somehow sound very profane.

Pa'u oricorio are rather withdrawn. They tend not to notice the world around them and focus on their own inner life. Nice to their friends and mostly apathetic to their enemies, the biggest risk of dealing with pa'u style oricorio is that of accidentally being hypnotized into wasting the day away. These are good partners for relatively inactive and laidback trainers. Constant activity or very energetic conversations annoy them.

Baile oricorio have been described as incredibly dramatic. They approach everything with utmost sincerity and grow perhaps exaggeratedly angry over small setbacks. When the occasion calls for it they want extravagant celebrations. Interpersonal conflicts, even generally positive ones, are prone to grand gestures and dramatic spats that require a lot of emotional investment. If someone they love is hurting, baile oricorio will do everything they can to provide comfort and avenge the harm.

Sensu oricorio are ethereally graceful. Their movements often seem to be too perfect to be natural. The style seldom displays emotion and prefers that all relationships be distant, formal, and abundantly polite. In very close relationships they may behave a little more informally but will always immediately stiffen up and demand formality when anyone else draws close. Above all sensu oricorio hate surprises or anything that can catch them off guard and ruin the illusion of perfection. Violators can be mercilessly punished. Most sensu oricorio trainers are afraid of their pokémon, even if they love it. This is probably for the best in ensuring that there is at least the appearance of respect. Only trainers who have developed an extremely deep relationship with the oricorio in another style and have no serious mental health issues should attempt to train them. Unfortunately the trainers who are very comfortable with the subdued behavior sensu oricorio require tend to be depressed.

Talented dancers, and to a lesser extend singers, acrobats, and storytellers, are the best trainers at gaining an oricorio's respect. Teaching the pokémon a dance style it does not already know is the best way to hold the bird's attention and gain its respect.

Illness

Like most birds powerful hits can easily lead to broken bones. Trainers should be very careful when picking matchups and be quick to surrender the round.

Oricorio's liquid diet can cause health consequences. Overhydration in particular can lead to kidney problems. Sensu oricorio tend to drink exactly what is needed. Pom-pom oricorio are very fond of their nectar and need to be well-rationed. Baile oricorio's desire for nectar varies wildly with their mood. When focused they will need to be forcefully reminded to drink and when melodramatic they will need to be cut off. Pa'u oricorio often forget to drink altogether.

Evolution

Oricorio take the form of the nectar they consume the most. After one day to a few weeks on another nectar, depending upon the pokémon's preference for different styles, flash evolution will occur. Oricorio is one of the only species that can flash evolve many time in its life and even evolve between forms as an adult.

Battle

No oricorio is widely used on competitive circuits. While there is some speculation that pa'u oricorio could be very effective when paired with a psychic terrain setter or used on a monotype team this has never been tested at high levels. Sensu oricorio could theoretically force some forfeits from opponents who don't want to deal with it but this is a cheap strategy that requires spending large amounts of time around a sensu oricorio. There is serious discussion of banning sensu style from the U.S. and Alolan Leagues to prevent a potentially uncompetitive strategy.

All styles tend to use the same basic strategies. They open by distracting the opponent through the subtle emotional manipulation of their core dances. As this continues they slowly start to work in calm mind while maintaining enough of the oracle dance in their style to keep the opponent distracted. When that is done the oricorio shifts to unleashing powerful revelation dances and hurricanes. Weak hits can be blocked by substitute or shrugged off with roost. Every style has their own variation on this formula owing the emotions their attacks generate and the exact mechanics of the revelation dance they use. Pom-pom oricorio tends to rely more on dodging attacks than distracting opponents. Pa'u style can use powerful attacks right off the bat in some instances but can quickly deplete the ambient energy on the battlefield. Baile style have some difficulty using calm mind at all. Sensu style must be taught to boost before attacking and use powerful elemental attacks rather than psychological torture. While very effective and a solid opening move to distract opponents it is not a way to gain goodwill with the broader trainer community. Without boosting sensu oricorio also lose most damage races, even against distracted opponents.

Acquisition 

The easiest styles to start training with are baile and pom-pom. Baile oricorio are somewhat rare but still present in Ula'Ula Meadow. A few wander towards Castleton or onto Route 17. One small troupe has been seen around an abandoned baile flower garden in Po Town. Pom-pom oricorio live almost exclusively in Melemele Meadow with a few vagrants in other parts of Route 3 and northern Route 2. The easiest way to bond with an oricorio is to simply play a song and dance in a style similar to that of the pokémon. One may take notice join in with their own. This may need to be repeated for a few days before the pokémon begins to follow when their new trainer leaves the meadow. At this point they may be captured without a battle. Skilled dancers are advised to try their hand at capturing baile oricorio. Unskilled dancers or singers with enough enthusiasm may be able to draw the attention of a pom-pom oricorio despite their lack of talent.

Pa'u oricorio can be captured through a similar method but they are very rare outside of Akala Meadow Preserve, a wildlife park with a full capture ban and strict visitation rules. Royale Avenue has begun to introduce a few and allow them to free roam. Various pokémon are employed to kill any pests that enter the area and threaten their birds. Employees of the Royal Arena and Pokémon Center are allowed to capture pa'u oricorio that agree to join them. Capture rights can also be performed as a reward for performing shows or winning battle royales.

Sensu oricorio are not recommended as a starting form. Their capture is legal (within the annual quotas set by the National Park Service) and they can be found throughout Poni National Park, even away from the central meadow. Strangely enough, setting up a tea party with an empty chair with a cup of nectar can attract sensu oricorio. If very proper manners are observed and an interesting story is told with proper respect and minimal emotion the oricorio might consent to capture. Alternatively, trainers with ties to at least one god can sometimes get sensu oricorio to seek them out. It is not necessary to capture these birds and they handle polite rejections shockingly well. In Alolan mythology sensu oricorio often sought out heroes and kings to show them visions of the deceased or offer prophecies.

There is a relatively small population of oricorio available for sale or capture. They are rather expensive and can sometimes struggle to adjust to a new trainer. All oricorio styles can be captured, adopted, or purchased with a Class III license.

Breeding

Oricorio tend to live in troupes of two to ten mated pairs and their young children. Mated pairs spend most of their day together (with their children) and then the troupe reassembles around dusk to sleep in the same general space. Little is understood of oricorio mate selection, mating, and childrearing due to the very dense meadows they inhabit.

Oricorio were first bred in captivity twenty-six years ago. The only successful births so far occurred in large greenhouses with thick flowerbeds and little human disturbance. Most of these were baile style oricorio. Pa'u style oricorio were bred for the first time two years ago in San Diego.

Subspecies

There may have been other oricorio styles in the past whose flowers went extinct. Several skeletons of a potentially undiscovered style have been unearthed in Northeastern Ula'Ula and on the slopes of Mt. Hokulani. Carbon dating has determined the skeletons are twelve to three thousand years old. It is possible that minior, claydol, metagross, or decidueye in the area may have firsthand knowledge of this style.


	49. Ribombee

**Ribombee (Cutiefly)**

Overview

Lucario are popular worldwide due in part to their associations with aura. Unfortunately the species' Alola population is confined to Poni National Park, riolu are very selective about their trainers, and eggs are expensive. Mienshao, often seen as a poor man's lucario, suffer from many of the same problems.

Most trainers don't know that ribombee also use aura. While their aura is used reading is used mainly for utility rather than offense or defense the beeflies are empaths and rather good at predicting and dodging attacks. Combined with their naturally high speed they can be good sweepers on the island challenge. The species also requires relatively little dedicated training and is easy to obtain. On balance feeding ribombee can sometimes be difficult and, while they are very cute, they lack the "coolness" that makes lucario (and mienshao) popular.

Physiology

Ribombee and cutiefly are classified as dual bug- and fairy-type pokémon. Their secondary fairy-typing is heavily disputed as ribombee lack most of the classic fairy-type traits (tricksters, lunar affiliation) but can read auras, a traditionally fighting-type attribute. Ribombee's natural affinity for moonblast have been used to justify the current typing. The matter is being reviewed by the Department of Agriculture and a type change to either pure bug or bug-fighting is considered likely.

Cutiefly are very small insect pokémon. They are not considered to be true bees due to their lack of hives, swarming, honey production, or stingers. Genetic tests suggest that they are actually related to—and possibly descended from—vikavolt. Cuteifly have fuzzy yellow hair on the front of their body, an exposed white exoskeleton at the back, and a short and firm proboscis. Their wings resemble those of vikavolt and rest over the pokémon's back when at rest. Wings often have patterns on them that vary by region and family. These patterns include eyes, bright colors that blend in with their feathers, or dark green or blue shades that make the pokémon resemble a small vikavolt at a glance. Four long black legs rest beneath the cutiefly's body.

Ribombee have a build more like butterfree than vikavolt's. Two antennae, a short proboscis, and large compound eyes adorn their head. A brown "scarf" of hair rests on the neck and boosts ribombee's aura reading powers. Two arms are attached just below the scarf and the other two are located at the end of the body. Special joints allow ribombee to use their wings to either flutter like a proper butterfly or fly like a vikavolt when they need to move quickly.

The species subsists on a mix of honey and nectar. Ribombee use the honey to create waxy secretions that can bind together pollen and slightly change its inherent properties. This can cause the pollen to either be a disorienting or toxic weapon or a very nutritious food source for cutiefly. Ribombee often leave a mix of toxic and nutritious puffs lying around. Only cutiefly seem to be able to tell the difference.

Ribombee grow to lengths of 23 centimeters and weigh up to 270 grams. They live for roughly eighteen months in the wild and captivity.

Behavior

Most pokémon can only exist because of other pokémon. Grass-types purifying the air and soil let forests grow fast enough to support herbivores. Predators rely mostly on large pokémon for their food rather than killing dozens of relatively small and energy-light baseline animals. Ribombee are almost entirely separate from the pokémon-based ecology of Alola. Most of their interactions are with baseline insects.

Ribombee steal their honey from ordinary bees by using their light attacks to disorient swarms and smash hives open. Their main competitors in pollination are baseline insects and hummingbirds. Most pokémon in the area don't interact with ribombee at all due to their toxic pollens, annoying binding fluids, skittishness, and high speed. Even the main pokémon pollinator in Alola—butterfree—is not a direct competitor. Rain washes away the pollen ribombee have accumulated and the species goes to great lengths to avoid it. Butterfree are most active during these storms and help keep large flowers pollinated during the rainy season.

Cutiefly and ribombee do not use their aura to attack other pokémon or better themselves in constant competition. Instead it is used to identify the plants likely to have the best nectar or to sense the movements of predators and weather patterns. When faced with a potential threat both cutiefly and ribombee prefer to turn tail and use their high flight speeds and agility to run off into the forest and evade their pursuer.

Husbandry

Honey is cheap as far as pokémon food goes. Nectar, especially from ribombee and cutiefly's preferred plants, is a fair bit more expensive. It is most commonly sold in bird specialty stores that stock it for oricorio. Relatively cheap butterfree nectar mixes can work in a pinch. Thankfully ribombee can forage for their own nectar most of the time and seem to prefer doing so as it lets them accumulate pollen. So long as there are flowers out and the weather is clear ribombee can be trusted to eat on their own and use their abilities to find their trainer when finished. Cutiefly have weaker aura reading and a few predators and should be supervised.

Ribombee and, to a lesser extent, cutiefly are clever and easily taught new tricks. Both are also affectionate and enjoy contact with their trainer and teammates. Many ribombee perch on their trainer's head or shoulder when outside of their ball and in clear weather. Many individual shops (as well as all Pokémon Center lobbies and a few small cities) ban ribombee from being unleashed in public due to the sheer amount of pollen they carry on them. Both stages prefer to be outside of their ball whenever it is not raining. Ribombee despise rain and pokéballs mimic their natural habit of hiding in tree stumps well enough. Net and nest balls are the best choices.

Both stages are neither strictly diurnal nor nocturnal. Sleep schedules tend to be based around the rain and winds rather than the sun. While far from the capriciousness of most fairy-types, ribombee get upset if their preferred sleep schedule is disrupted. Thankfully they will sleep in their pokéball with minimal fuss.

Illness

Ribombee are not built to last. A single hit from even many non-pokémon birds can kill it, their exoskeleton isn't particularly durable, and their organs are prone to failure for no clear reason if they survive to the two year mark. While their lifespan is far longer than butterfree's there is relatively little research on how to heal them. Any serious hit from a fully evolved pokémon has the potential to kill ribombee in one shot. Cutiefly have to be careful around even fairly weak pokémon. Be very cautious about using them in battle. Ideally they should be limited to fighting grounded pokémon with no way of hitting back or for field control against another utility lead.

Evolution

Between two and three months of age, cutiefly will form small cocoons for their evolution. Evolution itself only takes three to seven days. The cocoon should not be moved during this time period.

Battle

Despite their extreme frailty, ribombee have carved out a niche in professional battling. They are extremely fast and hit decently hard. More importantly, they naturally form a sticky pollen binding substance. While the quantity is normally limited by their small size a very well trained ribombee with experience around another sticky web setter can learn to use elemental energy to coat the battlefield in webs. Their high speed and small size makes them tricky to hit as they set up field control. Alternatively they can spread status or boost midflight with quiver dance. Ribombee have extremely high mortality rates on the battlefield and are near deadweight outside of field control and the occasional revenge kill. Many trainers aren't willing to give a team slot to a pokémon that will probably only fight in a few matches before dying of injury or old age.

Ribombee benefit from the relative frailty of pokémon on the island challenge vis a vis the professional circuit. Many pokémon have no options at all for dealing with an aerial attacker. In the time it takes for the switch clock to run ribombee can either boost themselves up to terrifying speeds and fairly impressive power or coat the battlefield in webs and benefit future levitators or birds. Ribombee are still extremely frail pokémon and should use u-turn to switch out as soon as their role is fulfilled.

Cutiefly function best as weak but somewhat fast flying artillery. Ideally they should not fight at all as within a fairy short period of time they will evolve on their own.

Acquisition

Ribombee and cutiefly are most common in Alola's meadows but can also be found in many savannahs on the islands. Proving battles are both unnecessary and dangerous but some sort of a trapper may be necessary to keep ribombee from fleeing the battle or at least constantly evading thrown pokéballs. Many trainers have reported success at luring in ribombee by placing a cup of a very rare or foreign flower's nectar out and sitting still nearby for as long as it takes for a pokémon to take the bait. If the nectar is good enough and the process is repeated a few times a teammate can often be obtained without a battle. Be advised that the beeflies will expect similar nectar to be provided fairly often.

Cutiefly can be captured with a Class I license. Ribombee can be captured with a Class II. No shelters take them in and there are no dedicated breeders so purchase and adoption are near impossible. If a trainer does want to sell their cutiefly or ribombee the licensing requirements are the same as capture.

Breeding

Ribombee mating occurs when a male ambushes a female in midair and overpowers her in an acrobatic contest. Mating is done while flying at full speed in seemingly random directions until both partners abruptly separate and dash away from each other. The female ribombee will then search for burrowing bug-type pokémon or non-pokémon insect nests. She uses her antennae and sensors on the tips of her feet to glean information about the nest. If it is satisfactory she will extend a thin tube from her rear and deposit her eggs into the nest. The offspring will hatch after a few days and begin to feed upon the adults, juveniles, and eggs of the host species. When nothing more remains the cutiefly will dig their way out of the nest and enter the world.

The species has never been bred in captivity due to the somewhat odd nature of their mating and parasitism. In any case they are not in danger of extinction in Alola.

Subspecies

The Galarians introduced ribombee to the gardens of their home island as well as colonies around the world. There is some dispute as to whether these populations should count as subspecies or not.


	50. Florges

**Florges (Flabébé, Floette)**

Overview

Around 1000 BCE a superweapon was fired in Kalos. A long, bloody war came to an end with the annihilation of both sides. In the end no party won, save perhaps the desperate king who resurrected his beloved companion only to be rejected and abandoned. In time almost everything in Kalos, human and pokémon, lost their cultural memory of the war.

Florges never did. The species is still attempting to process it three millennia later. They keep vast gardens to honor the dead, revive the scorched earth, and try to bring some meaning to the world after warfare. When they choose to fight they are very powerful pokémon.

While florges has human-comparable intelligence, the lower stages have maturity more comparable to toddlers and grade schoolers than adult humans. Raising a flabébé to adulthood is very much like raising a child. Florges do not need as much of a watchful eye. On balance they are haunted, fickle creatures who need heavy emotional support and a very understanding trainer. When they do find a solid partnership florges are likely to form a deep bond with their trainer. Even centuries later they can be heard murmuring maternal lamentations for their human companions as they wander the wastelands human wars have wrought.

Physiology

The florges line are currently classified as pure fairy-type pokémon. This is heavily disputed, most prominently by scholars arguing that as plant pokémon at least the first two stages should have a grass-typing. The general melancholy and possible channeling abilities of florges also support a potential ghost-typing. However, there is no definitive proof that florges can speak with the dead and, unlike most plant-based pokémon, florges are not primarily photosynthetic. Also unlike most grass-types florges aren't seriously bothered by fire and fear death by water more than anything.

Flabébé are small fey creatures with a short stem-like tail, a round torso, and a head that dwarfs the rest of their body. Ear-like petals sprout from the sides of their head and a crown of yellow flowers rests on top. The bottom portion of flabébé is green and the top is white. Flabébé instinctively attach themselves to a flower they like. The color appears to dictate the powers they control later on in life (see Behavior). Any flower flabébé bonds with tends to grow even after being plucked and never wilts. It was long thought that flabébé somehow absorbed the energy of their flower to feed. Recent research shows that this is not the case and the entire line feed almost exclusively on ambient elemental energy and moonlight, with blood and sunlight being serviceable replacements in times of desperation.

Floette have much larger bodies than flabébé and retain their flower. Now they themselves are almost as large, with their green tail growing and developing fins at the end that let them swim through the air like a marine mammal. The crown is replaced with small buds around the ears and large green antennae. What the ears, crown, or antennae are used for is still not well understood.

Florges have been described as a girl in a hyacinth. Their tail splits into two long petals that can be used to entirely cover the main body. The tail itself grows tall enough to allow very large florges to look their trainer in the eye. The flower is fused with and becomes an elaborate wreath around the florges' head. Despite being distantly related to other flower pokémon, florges have organ systems similar to some animals. They have a heart (that glows when exposed to air) but no lungs. A small brain rests behind their pearlescent eyes with nerve clusters throughout the body assisting it. It is possible that florges offload some of their mental functions to their garden itself.

The largest florges can reach heights of 1.7 meters and weights of 20 kilograms. Their lifespan is unknown; there may still be florges alive who witnessed the Kalosian wars three millennia ago.

Behavior

Flabébé are carefree spirits that spend their days wandering their mother's garden in pursuit of the best possible flower. They sometimes observe or even prank the pokémon or people in the garden but never do any serious harm. In turn no one dares harm a baby under her mother's watchful eye. Strong gusts of wind can blow flabébé away as they are not yet skilled fliers and are almost always carrying a comparatively large sail with them. They must take shelter by clinging to their mother during storms.

Floette leave their mothers and set off onto their own. In Kalos they often retreat uphill to live free in the mountains for a few years, tending to small meadows and flowerbeds in groups as they practice their budding powers. Some end up in cities or the suburbs where they tend to parks, backyard gardens, and flower beds. Disrupting a flower bed can earn the pokémon's wrath, either immediately or after they evolve. While not yet as somber as florges, floette have complex emotional lives and are prone to fits of anger when dealing with feelings they don't understand.

Florges often stay in one place and care for an increasingly large garden. The florges' presence strengthens the plants within and even heals pokémon and humans, physically and perhaps emotionally. In turn they gain more and more influence over their gardens. The exact powers gained depend on their personality and flower color. Manipulations of light and darkness are common. One florges was fond of communicating with humans through heaps of broken images scattered amongst the flowers. Others raise shadows in the twilight and apparently talk to them. Florges that have learned the human language have claimed these shadows are the spirits of the dead. One particularly powerful florges in Iberia has been known to cast a violet glow over their garden for about an hour every night. Many visitors report seeing or hearing long-dead loved ones. Whether this is a psychic illusion or a channeling of actual spirits is not yet clear.

As a general rule purple and pink florges have spectral or psionic gifts, red and orange florges are low-grade biokinetics that actively change the beings in their garden, blue florges have minor weather altering abilities, yellow florges specialize in powders and debilitating effects, and green florges are particularly competent healers. Slight variations in shades and temperament can produce different effects.

White florges are the rarest by far. Rather than tending to gardens they tend to wander the world wrapped in long brown cloaks and veils. While this does deprive them of a garden to channel their powers, white florges have extremely powerful lunar energy that let them release some of the strongest known moonblasts, heal themselves almost completely in an instant with moonlight, and even restore others or gradually warp an environment. They are also extremely intelligent; one Kalosian king declared a white florges that spent time in his court to be the wisest woman in all of Europe.

All florges are wracked by their knowledge of devastation. Some of this is firsthand and comes from being empathetic beings with long, long lifespans. The rest is either from passed-down stories or potentially a communal memory. They are naturally wary of conflict and distrustful of humans, although they often are sought out by the broken for their calming gardens and relation to the dead. Florges will often allow corpses to be buried in their garden so that the deceased can at least create something beautiful in death, whatever they accomplished in life. Newly evolved florges are fond of settling down in the aftermaths of bloody battles, natural disasters, nuclear fallout, or legendary attacks and making lilacs grow from the dead earth. The flower pokémon are obsessed with meaning and try to bring some significance from even the most pointless of tragedies.

White florges are somewhat more active healers and peacemakers. They tend to move between monasteries, courts, universities, and other centers of human influence and learn and teach what they can. White florges are particularly fearsome advocates for peace. This does not make them inherently peaceful. All florges become violent when their garden is threatened. White florges consider the world to be their garden. Warmongers or profiteers often wind up being killed by a moonblast. One florges in Galar became particularly fond of murdering every noble involved in a war regardless of guilt to dissuade them from violence. Eventually the nobility banded together and killed the florges before burning down all florges gardens on the island and banning their importation. While another white florges did avenge her sister, no new gardens have formed there since.

Husbandry

All evolutionary stages feed primarily on moonlight and ambient elemental energy. Current and recent trial sites have an abundance of Z-Energy to feed on. Z-Crystals can also serve as a battery of sort. Florges and strong floette can safely bask at night. Flabébé will need a guardian on the trail; Pokémon Centers often have some sort of netting over their pools to protect weaker fish, making these great basking spots in cities. Only sick specimens produce waste.

Like most intelligent pokémon, members of the florges line require extensive enrichment and bonding activities. The exact nature of care required depends on the evolutionary stage.

As mentioned above, flabébé are young and relatively carefree. They require near constant protection to make sure they don't blow away in the wind, fall victim to predators, or accidentally hurt themselves. Visits to parks and flower beds or shops make good enrichment. While they might come to understand a few words flabébé are unlikely to speak or develop a true understanding of the human language. Frequently talking to flabébé can teach them more words and help them understand the subtext of tone, inflection, and body language. While very lightweight toys such as origami birds can make for good enrichment flabébé will typically find ways to entertain themselves.

Floette are fairly comparable to human children. If raised from a young age they will start to fully understand the human language and even be able to form rudimentary sentences of their own. Unlike flabébé's rather physical curiosity, floette enjoy trips to museums and interesting landmarks and appreciate explanations as to how things work. "Why" is often their favorite word and trainers should be prepared to patiently explain mundane aspects of the world many times. On balance, floette trainers often wind up learning a great deal about many subjects in the process. Teaching floette to read can help abate their curiosity. Strangely enough, floette get along far more with carnivorous pokémon than herbivores. The flowers instinctively defend other plants and beautiful scenery and can come into conflict with grazers. Careful explanation of the other pokémon's diet may be needed to ease tensions. While they may form attachments to other pokémon they are likely to see them as competitors for their trainer's time and affections.

Florges are more than capable of taking care of themselves. The biggest hurdle for florges trainers is convincing them they should stay. Owning a large plot of land to form a garden on helps but this still doesn't benefit traveling trainers and, given the Alolan real estate market, is unobtainable for many island challengers. It is usually easiest to convince the florges that their trainer and teammates are their garden of sorts and they should care for the emotional needs of those they love. This requires forming a genuinely familial relationship. Extensive time spent together, genuine consideration of the florges' advice, and shared interests help. Compatible political ideology and attendance at anti-war or pro-environment rallies also encourage the florges to stay, although the laws about pokémon at protest events should be reviewed in advance. Finally, traumatized trainers – especially refugees and veterans – instinctively trigger maternal feelings. Florges get along well with blissey who are also attracted to similar humans.

White florges tend not to care about forming gardens. They are also easier to bond with and often already know the human language. Unlike most pokémon, white florges have memories and duties. As long-lived creatures florges are often unwilling to attach themselves to a trainer who will die in mere decades. Conversely, sometimes they may agree to travel with a trainer who reminds them of an old companion. In the end white florges often see themselves as bound by duties to their species, humanity, and the world. Their plans may prove incompatible with their trainers (and often involve breaking a fair few laws).

Illness

Elemental withdrawal is the cause of most florges illnesses. Even serious physical wounds can be mended in time through hibernation and absorption of moonlight and energy. Withdrawal symptoms include wilting, wandering away from beloved places and people, extreme mood swings, and a refusal to use their powers. Florges that can speak will often lay out their problems. Thankfully almost all damage can be fixed with exposure to enough energy from evolutionary stones, Z- and mega-crystals, wishing stars, and particularly charged areas.

Drowning is the main cause of death in fully grown florges. They do require oxygen to breathe and are not particularly adept swimmers. While florges are usually smart enough to avoid this fate they can still be caught off-guard by shipwrecks, flash floods, and assassins.

Evolution

Flabébé gradually evolve to floette. In the wild the demarcation line is the new floette leaving the garden they were born in. In captivity a floette is a flabébé that has grown heavier than its flower. Size is the main physical difference between the two.

Florges evolve via flash evolution. Once a floette acquires enough wisdom, power, and courage it will seek out a place to grow a garden. The flowers will gradually gain elemental charges great enough to cause the floette's evolution. Alternatively, white floette evolve upon absorbing enough moonlight in their lifetime. In captivity evolution can be triggered by frequent battle and a moon, dawn, leaf, or shiny stone.

Battle

Florges, even outside of their gardens, are very powerful combatants. Moonblasts are their strongest offensive attacks, but some are also capable of using psionic moves or grass-elemental attacks. More importantly they are very durable and can quickly recover from most hits while continuing to bombard the opponent. They also have a variety of tricks, including fear spores that can cause severe panic attacks.

The difficulty of training florges and their general aversion to violence makes them niche picks on the European and global circuits. When used they make for effective dragon checks and they can shut down many special attackers by shrugging off damage and retaliating in kind. Their odd hybrid plant-animal minds also make them difficult for alakazam to target.

White florges are the strongest in almost every way. They are extremely uncommon as they tend to be averse to fighting for the sake of fighting. A handful of European collectors have started to deliberately raise white flabébé in controlled environments to produce relatively complaint white florges. Results have been mixed and more than one such project was destroyed after a free florges found out about it.

On the island challenge florges function mostly as special tanks. Moonblasts and other attacks can wound opponents while the florges heals herself. anything that gets too close can be shown fear in a handful of dust and promptly hit with a point-blank attack for their trouble.

Floette and flabébé are much harder to battle with as neither are particularly fast, durable, or strong. They mostly rely upon powder attacks to stun an opponent before slowly whittling down the opponent. Ideally flabébé should not be battled with at all and floette should only be used against relatively weak opponents. Notably anything with wind manipulation can literally blow the pokémon away and should be avoided.

Acquisition

Florges were deliberately released into Alola in the 1970s to help preserve the island's meadows. Their descendants still live on the archipelago. However, the government has bounties on white flabébé and floette and the importation of both is prohibited to prevent terrorism.

Flabébé can be found in the areas around large flower meadows. Their capture is prohibited on Akala but allowed on the other three tapu islands. Be forewarned that florges can grow defensive over flabébé capture in their garden and will seek out a battle against the trainer themselves followed by a long appraisal. Floette are easier to obtain as they are more widely distributed and not actively monitored by florges. In any case, flabébé can be purchased from some plant specialist breeders. Florges capture is prohibited to help preserve the meadows.

Flabébé can be obtained with a Class III license; floette and florges require a Class IV license to possess.

Breeding

Florges are capable of asexual reproduction. Alternatively they can cross-pollinate with another florges. All florges are hermaphrodites. Virtually all accept a female or female-adjacent gender identity. Very few male-identifying florges have been recorded.

After self- or cross-pollination the florges lowers herself into her tail leaves and seals herself in. After seven to ten days she will emerge with several crystalline seeds lining her body. She will carefully place these just beneath the surface. Two to four weeks later the new flabébé will emerge. The mother florges will watch her children closely for the first year of their life before slowly granting them more autonomy.

Breeding florges in captivity can be difficult. To start with taking seeds or flabébé away from a mother florges without her consent is almost guaranteed to lead to the death of the florges herself as well as anyone she can take with her along the way. Gaining consent requires convincing the mother that her children can be cared for by humans and giving them up would be good for the new flabébé or the world as a whole. There are a surprising number of breeders who have managed this with the prospects of new gardens or potentially influential children being introduced to the florges' ideology.

Subspecies

While most flabébé end up taking a flower of the same color as their parents, if only because an abundance of such flowers typically live in the garden, they can adopt another one. As such florges do not have subspecies, even though there are multiple categories of individuals with combat and personality differences.


	51. Lilligant

**Lilligant (Petilil)**

Overview

Most pokémon, and especially most popular pokémon, are essentially just animals with slightly odd biology and the ability to harness elemental powers. Many of the exceptions lack any carbon-based biology. Then there are pokémon that are essentially plants with odd biology and elemental energy wells. Lilligant is a fairly typical example with a very storied history. In the modern day they are mostly associated with celebrities, art collectors, and the top grass-type breeders. While maintaining the flower does require fairly expensive and time-consuming interventions, it is not necessary for the pokémon's health to do so. If the flower need not be blooming than lilligant are somewhat easier to care for, although their need for very good soil does make them more difficult than many other grass-types.

Biology

Both stages of the evolutionary line are classified as pure grass-types. The ruling is not controversial.

Petilil have shallow light green roots, a large bulb, and two to five dark green leaves on their head. One side of the bulb is white and contains eye spots that can detect light and movement. Petilil's leaves are very bitter but have traditionally been used as a form of medicine in Central Asia. Studies on their efficacy have had mixed results, but most show that boiling the leaves and drinking the liquid does slightly counteract or postpone old age health problems. Their skin is mildly toxic and can cause rashes if handled without gloves. Petilil can move by pulling themselves out of the ground and shuffling to a new location. This is energy intensive, slow, and seldom done.

Lilligant's roots remain about the same size as those of a petilil. Their lower bulb is larger and a white stalk with two arm-like leaves and a smaller white bulb with eye spots develop over it. A mixture of light and dark green leaves flow from the top bulb. Some captive lilligant have a vibrant red flower blooming year round. Most develop it seasonally. As a consequence of their larger size and small root structures lilligant are almost entirely incapable of moving.

Even among grass-types the line is notable for their need for high-quality soils. This is an accidentally cultivated trait as the wild lilligant of Central Asia thrive in rugged montane lands and semideserts. Instead selective breeding for larger bulbs and more vibrant colors (as well as smaller roots to keep the precious flowers from running away) made for ever more demanding nutritional requirements. Now the only places they can naturally live long-term in the wild have either very good soil or an abundance of grass-elemental energy. Additionally some cold weather (more than ninety days below 10 degrees C / 50 degrees F) is usually required for survival. This initially confined Alolan lilligant to the mountains, although in recent decades several have successfully migrated down to the lowlands.

Lilligant can grow up to 110 centimeters in height and weigh up to 8 kilograms. They can survive up to nine years in the wild or seven in captivity.

Behavior

Petilil and lilligant appear to do rather little. Once they have found a moist location with good soils and occasional sunlight they will dig themselves in and stay put. If their location is about to flood or burn down they will attempt to move. This disguises the constant battle for survival among plants where pheromones are transmitted, the environment is monitored, and defense mechanisms are prepared and deployed with no apparent external changes. Petilil are mildly venomous and generally foul-tasting and most large animals and pokémon leave them alone. Funguses and parasites are not so kind. Biologically expensive toxins can be prepared in advance to fend off invaders but are generally not maintained. But when one petilil or lilligant falls sick, it transmits information on the threat to all others in the gallery and within a week the entire group is resistant.

Lilligant can be somewhat more proactive about larger threats that decide that the plants are acceptable food. Despite being slow lilligant can still unleash dangerous spores or lash out with solar beam or magical leaf attacks. In Alola there is seldom a need for this as their forests and meadows are overseen by oranguru and florges, respectively.

Husbandry

Many trainers find it difficult to bond with plant pokémon, especially one as non-expressive as lilligant or petilil. It is possible to communicate. Over time the pokémon can learn to recognize their caretaker's voice. Basic word association needed for battle and commands can also be established by saying the word for whatever the pokémon is doing as it does it. Lilligant can communicate back through slight changes in posture or scent. On the bright side, the plants need relatively little emotional investment and are not physically affectionate. Very busy trainers often appreciate this.

The line are perfectly content to travel in pokéballs. When stationary they should be allowed to dig into soil. Petilil trainers and lilligant trainers unconcerned with flower quality can leave the plant outside or in a shallow pot of ordinary soil. In order to maintain flower quality very specific soil blends at ideal temperatures and moistures are required, as well as occasional exposure to very specific scents. Under no circumstances should the lilligant be allowed to mate (see Breeding). Trainers particularly concerned with flower maintenance should consult the specialist literature.

It is safe to harvest petilil leaves for consumption at a rate of one leaf per ten days.

Illness

Lilligant flowers are prone to wither away or even rot. While visually unpleasant this is a natural part of their life cycle and is not a cause for concern. If any other area of a lilligant's body starts to rot that is a sign of a late-stage parasitic or bacterial infection that must be treated as soon as possible. The same goes for white molds coating any part of the body or abrupt changes in color. Wilting of non-flower parts is usually a sign of dehydration. The lilligant should be moved to a wetter area or have their soil dampened, but not waterlogged.

Lilligant Fracturing Disease once defined the species in culture. The viral infection caused changes in pigmentation that led to beautiful patterns of red, blue, green, and yellow to appear on a lilligant or petilil's body. The disease inspired a great deal of artwork and was deliberately spread. Unfortunately the infection dramatically reduced fertility and lifespan and led to the demise of nearly all European and Middle Eastern lilligant within a few generations. Of the domesticated lilligant subspecies, only the Unovan population survived. Reintroduction efforts have subsequently introduced the species back to much of its former range, although parts of Europe have become too polluted to successfully support a wild population.

Evolution

Petilil begin to evolve in their second autumn of life. After a brief scouting period to find the best place to begin the process, as well as a lilligant or florges to watch over them, the pokémon partially buries itself and grows dormant. First the bulb begins to expand and the eyespots are subsumed under the new layers. Then a stalk and second bulb begin to bloom. Finally the leaves on the lilligant's head begin to develop. The entire process takes three to four weeks. At the end the new lilligant awakens and resumes its normal pattern of inactivity.

Botanists in Iberia have successfully evolved petilil at seven months of age through the use of a greenhouse that simulated an accelerated seasonal cycle. This is impractical for most trainer's to replicate and no facility for doing so currently exists in Alola.

Battling

Lilligant suffer heavily from their lack of mobility. They also are not bulky enough to serve as immobile special tanks, although their solar beams and magical leaves are rather powerful. Pokémon such as venusaur, tropius, and tangrowth largely fill lilligant's potential niche. Quiver dance is an effective setup move but when lilligant starts with terrible mobility it functionally only boosts the plant's attack power and special bulk. Finally, lilligant has very little ability to manipulate non-grass elements and can be shut down by any bulky resists.

Island challengers wishing to use lilligant should prioritize power training at first. Once solar beam and magical leaf are mastered defensive tactics can be learned. Ideally lilligant should be sent in against a special attacker it can overpower at range. Anything that tries to get close can be put to sleep. Unfortunately sleep powder does tend to set in after lilligant has taken critical amounts of damage. Lilligant can overpower many early opponents, and petill are durable enough to hold up on the first island, but eventually they will stop being able to pull their weight.

Acquisition

Petilil tend to live in places with large amounts of grass-type energy or great soil. On Alola this amounts to the interior and northern forests of Akala and the oricorio meadows. Petilil can be identified through their leaves with the help of a guidebook. Proving battles are unnecessary to gain compliance but useful for whittling down the pokémon's health to allow for capture. Newly captured petilil tend to be apathetic towards their trainer and are unlikely to run away unless neglected.

Lilligant capture is currently prohibited. Florges are quite fond of lilligant and react poorly to attempts to remove them. They are far less defensive of petilil.

Petilil can be adopted, purchased, or captured with a Class II license. Lilligant may be purchased or adopted with a Class III license.

Breeding

Lilligant begin to bloom in the late winter. When two lilligant find each other they will press their flowers together to exchange gametes before going back to their own ranges. All lilligant are hermaphrodites and have both male and female reproductive organs. Two to five days later they will bury seeds into the ground. Petilil will emerge shortly after the Vernal Equinox.

Maintaining a lilligant's flower requires keeping the pokémon constantly in anticipation of mating. The scent of other lilligant flowers must be a constant presence but no actual exposure to another lilligant can occur. Sometimes the process requires keeping the lilligant in a cool, damp greenhouse for most of the year.

Trainers who intend to actually let their lilligant breed generally have an easy time doing so. Lilligant pairs do not raise their children together. For the most part the new parents take a very hands-off approach to child-rearing in general. Once the seeds are buried in a greenhouse or garden the parent will be quite willing to let its trainer take responsibility for the petilil.

Subspecies

Alolan lilligant with their relatively high tolerance for hot temperatures may be a subspecies of their own. If so then they are a branch from the domestic lilligant.

Wild lilligant are native to high-altitude meadows in Central Asia. Compared to their domestic counterparts they are smaller, less colorful, and have much thicker and rougher epidermis. Their roots are comparatively larger, allowing wild lilligant to live in fairly poor soils and move with far more ease than any domestic variant.


	52. Bibarel

_This week's entry of The Alola Pokedex was commissioned by Windskull for their high placement in a contest on Thousand Roads._

Downloading from The Alola Pokédex Online Appendix . . .

* * *

 **Bidoof (Bibarel)**

Overview

Gumshoos and raticate pose an obvious danger to their ecosystems by directly eating small animals and pokemon. Much of the DNR's budget goes to controlling their populations. Bidoof have long been viewed as a lesser problem both in terms of raw numbers and environmental damage.

In order to facilitate a trade in bibarel pelts, testicles, castor sacs, and other body parts, a rancher introduced twelve bidoof to his property in 1981. Once the venture proved unprofitable he let the pokemon go. Those few founders have managed to establish a population of thousands on all islands. Unlike raticate and gumshoos, bibarel actively change the physical environment around them. They are prone to eating through entire forests and building relatively calm ponds in their place. In turn these ponds became excellent breeding grounds for magikarp and feebas. As such gyarados and milotic have hampered efforts to remove the rodents.

Following a diplomatic summit with the milotic of Brooklet Hill the DNR obtained permission to let citizens capture bidoof and bibarel in exchange for the protection of existing dams and an end to formal government removal programs. Trainers may now capture these cute, fearless normal-types for their own use.

Physiology

Bidoof are classified as pure normal-types. Bibarel are listed as dual normal- and water-types due to their much more aquatic lifestyle, adaptations, and elemental affinities.

Bidoof are small quadrupeds that typically stand low off the ground. Their fur is short but incredibly thick. The thickness combines with oils in the fur to make it nearly waterproof. Large incisors that continuously grow are the most notable feature on their faces. Unlike bibarel, bidoof do not have prominent tails and must swim primarily with their short, stubby limbs. As such they seldom swim at all unless a bibarel is guiding them along.

The main difference between bibarel and their pre-evolution is the latter's broad, flat tails that propel them through the water at surprisingly high speeds. Bibarel have been recorded swimming underwater for over twenty minutes at a time and for distances of over two kilometers. Bibarel still have generally short fur but gain several prominent brown and cream colored tufts of fur on their head to make them look bigger than they are.

Both bidoof and bibarel have fairly unique microfloral ecosystems in their guts to help digest their extremely high-fiber diet of wood, leaves, and roots.

Bidoof have long been hunted both for their pelts and their testicles and castoreum, the latter found in both males and females. Castoreum has been used as medicine by several cultures in the northern hemisphere. Recently it has gained some popularity as a natural flavoring and as a component in some perfumes. Bidoof were once hunted to the brink of extinction for these products, with surviving populations in Sinnoh and Florida subsequently revitalizing global numbers and even establishing invasive populations in Alola and the Falkland Islands.

As descendants of Floridian bidoof, the bibarel in Alola seldom hibernate and keep smaller fat reserves than their substantially chubbier Sinnohan counterparts.

Bibarel can reach lengths of 1.7 meters (tail included) and weigh up to twenty kilograms. In the wild they can live up to eight years. Captive lifespans vary considerably.

Behavior

Bibarel famously engineer the landscape around them. They use their teeth to bite through trees or long grasses and then their mouth or hands to move the material into the water. Under the surface several large and straight logs are placed in the riverbed. From there more logs are added in and attached to the main posts with mud as needed. Other plant material can also be used to block up flow. Once the dam is formed, bibarel set about making a lodge. For the most part these consist of a central pile of layered logs and mud with leaves and other soft materials placed on top above the water's surface. Then an outer shell of logs is assembled around it. Once the mud hardens on the shell (and freezes in cooler environments) the dam is practically impenetrable and can only be accessed from underwater entrances. The dam itself is split into one chamber for drying off after exiting the water and another for other activities.

Bidoof and bibarel are famously near-fearless despite being somewhat small to mid-size herbivores. This stems in part from their teeth which can severely injure all but the most durable of opponents. It also stems from the informal protection bidoof and bibarel receive from both pond-dwelling water-types and grazers who appreciate having forests cleared. Biboof's diet also makes them mildly toxic to many carnivores and low in nutritional value. As such they have little to fear and are well aware of this. In practice only pack-hunting carnivores with a type advantage (manectric), very large birds (braviary), and young or starving dragons prey on the rodents.

Adolescents in both Alola and the Falklands have been documented swimming between islands several kilometers apart in search of new rivers to claim.

Bibarel live in colonies of two mated adults and roughly two litters of children. Older bidoof assist in maintenance and food collection duties as well as in the rearing of the younger litter. Around their second birthday bidoof leave their dams to find mates and either occupy an unused dam or build one of their own. In the event that both parents die the oldest siblings will stay with the youngest until all are two years of age. One of the older bidoof will stay in the dam and attempt to attract a mate while the rest scatter to build more ponds.

Husbandry

Bidoof initially seem reasonably easy to care for. Their diet in captivity consists mostly of root vegetables with fruit or other vegetation comprising another 20-35%. While they need something to gnaw on, this is not an uncommon need. Furthermore bidoof are very easily housebroken as their own homes have segments for different tasks and it would be considered rude to defecate or urinate inside of the lodge. Occasional play, grooming, and cuddle sessions satisfy their social needs and are usually enjoyable for the trainer as well.

What makes bidoof and bibarel difficult to care for is their compulsive drive to chew on everything. Fences and furniture will almost certainly wind up with bite marks. Even metal and plastic objects aren't necessarily safe. Bidoof also don't take reprimands well and are prone to either keep doing the same thing at the same rate or increasing either the frequency or severity of unwanted gnawing out of spite. Bibarel that learn how to operate faucets often flood their homes on purpose. Stationary bibarel trainers tend to keep their pets outside with a pool or pond, enough material to make a lodge, and an electrified metal fence surrounding the property. Traveling trainers should consult guidebooks to learn which tree species are endangered. Generally speaking there are no fines for the destruction of invasive species such as bamboo.

While bidoof have some tolerance for pokeballs they prefer to be outside for at least eight hours a day.

In Sinnoh bibarel are well known work pokemon capable of leveling trees and moving logs, ferrying people, and generally performing low dexterity manual labor. If bibarel's building instincts can be properly channeled they will be quite willing to assist their trainer.

Illness

Bidoof were once thought to be the main source of giardias, a disease that causes diarrhea and lactose intolerance in humans. It is now understood that bidoof are uncommon carriers and pose little health risk to humans. The misconception still makes several regions reluctant to participate in bidoof reintroduction programs.

Evolution

Shortly after leaving home around their second birthday bidoof begin to evolve. The process is gradual and takes place over the course of several weeks, during which time bidoof begin to eat far more food than normal and do little else. Once the growth process is complete the new bibarel will swim away to find a mate.

Captivity replicates the experience of leaving family behind and can sometimes automatically trigger evolution. Evolving bidoof should be battled with sparingly and provided plenty of nutritious food.

Battle

Bibarel are not common on competitive battling circuits. They are relatively slow and neither powerful nor bulky enough to make them a viable choice over normal-types such as tauros and snorlax or water-types such as crawdaunt or swampert.

Still, on the island challenge bibarel can be fairly good in the early trials and remain viable through most of the islands. Bibarel are unusually good at stat boosting. The best way to use them is to set up with curse and use Rest and Sleep Talk as needed while firing off occasional offensive attacks. Unfortunately, curse bibarel is extremely slow and can struggle to land hits. If possible it should try to set up against a very bulky pokemon that can be outpaced even after boosting. Biting attacks are bibarel's strongest and take advantage of their tree-cutting teeth.

Bidoof play very similarly to rattata. Bite attacks are favored and taking hits is strongly not recommended. While bidoof are a tad bulkier than rattata they are also notably slower. As with bibarel they function best as a stall-breaker. Don't bother setting up; bidoof don't have the bulk to pull off a slow sweep. Anything that needs a swords dance to bring down is too powerful to fight with a bidoof.

Acquisition

Bidoof can be found in many watersheds in Alola. Route 4 and the Brooklet Hill area in particular have an abundance of bidoof. The interior of Melemele and the northern portions of Ula'Ula also have several. Bidoof are best ambushed while they gather wood in the early morning. Set up camp around a bibarel pond and wait, ideally in a tree stand, for one to pass by. Then engage in a quick proving battle and capture.

Bonding with a bidoof is much, much easier if it is allowed to say goodbye to its family before heading off. Most will return to their trainer and depart after an hour or so. Some will not. If the bidoof does not return by the end of the day or a bibarel comes out to attack assume that the pokemon does not wish to follow. While it is not illegal to withdraw it anyway and complete the capture it will be difficult to secure the pokemon's cooperation.

Bidoof can be obtained with a Class I license. Bibarel can be purchased or adopted with a Class II. Capture of wild bibarel is prohibited per the Brooklet Hill Interspecies Compact of 2019.

Breeding

Bibarel are generally monogamous. While cheating has been observed, most will mate with their partner exclusively. Widowed and widower bibarel have a brief mourning period and then seek out a new mate.

In the wild bibarel that wish to mate will follow each other around for a few weeks or months before agreeing to build a dam and lodge together. Until mating occurs either party can still leave if they wish. Afterwards abandonment is exceedingly rare.

Bibarel mate in late winter have a seven week pregnancy. Females give birth to two to three kits. Both parents and any older siblings still living in the lodge assist in raising the babies. Kits do not leave the lodge at all until they are about three months old. They do not leave the lodge unsupervised until the eight to nine month mark.

In captivity bibarel mating is complicated by the difficulty of determining an individual's sex. Doing so requires x-rays or surgery as all gonads are on the inside of the body.

If a male and female bibarel are introduced and accept each other they may become physically affectionate and start building or expanding their lodge. Mated pairs tend to spend relatively little time with their trainer during pregnancy and the first few months of childrearing. In general mated bibarel pull back from their trainer, even if they were very affectionate in the past. So long as they live with other social pokemon and a caring trainer mating is not necessary for a bibarel's mental stability. Trainers who wish to keep their cuddly companion's current personality should refrain from breeding it.

In general unrelated bibarel that are not mates will act aggressively towards one another. Training unrelated bibarel is not recommended without large plots of land.

Subspecies

There are two proper subspecies of bidoof. The Eurasian bidoof used to inhabit a range stretching east to west from Iberia to Japan and north to south from Scandanavia to Mesopotamia. Overhunting and annoyance from farmers and city planners led to the Eurasian bidoof's elimination from everywhere but Sinnoh, where they were long revered as helpful semidomesticated pokemon. In recent decades there have been movements to reintroduce the Eurasian bidoof to its old habitats due to their role as a keystone species.

Similar overhunting occurred in North America after the start of full-fledged European conquest. In the end bibarel were limited to Florida, then viewed as uninhabitable swampland. Being native to a warm penninsula, the Floridian bidoof has been slow to adapt to cold climates. The southern and southeastern United States now sport large populations that are slowly creeping north.

There are rumors of a Soviet breeding program to create stronger versions of easily bred pokemon. Some reports of dubious credibility suggest that a golden "perfect" bidoof may have been created with strength to rival legendaries and a disposition best described as omnicidal. While there is no hard proof of the subspecies' existence, several abandoned laboratories have been discovered with large bidoof-like teeth marks on the walls.


	53. Whimsicott

**Whimsicott (Cottonee)**

Overview

Whimsicott have been tied to many of the greatest triumphs and tragedies of the modern era. The first factories were made to process their fluff. The cottonee industry led to the mass produced pokéball, but also serious human and pokémon rights abuses. The fluff trade both stimulated global trade networks and led to coups, civil wars, and revolutions in Egypt, India, and the United States.

In recent years whimsicott have experienced a surge in popularity among casual and professional trainers. Their fluff and antics make them desirable for trainers interested in knitting and fine with harmless pranks. Whimsicott can also make for great pillows and are usually willing to play the part. On the professional circuits whimsicott have come to form the backbone of the quickstall teams.

Physiology

Cottonee and whimsicott are classified as dual grass- and fairy-type pokémon. Both have been disputed disputed. For most of European history scientists classified whimsicott as animals that resembled plants. As animals they could not have a grass-typing. Recent research and genetic sequencing has confirmed that whimsicott are, in fact, plants with several animal characteristics. The line's fairy-typing is justified by a weakness to iron and an affinity for pranks. There are purists who argue that fairy-typing, if it exists, requires some connection to the moon. The Department of Agriculture has not shown an interest in reopening its review of whimsicott's typing.

Cottonee are small plants with white outer membranes and a mass of white fibers growing out around the core body. A narrow fluffless band runs around their midsection and reveals their red eye spots. Two green flaps with photosynthetic capabilities extend from either side of their body. Cottonee get almost all of their food from photosynthesis and most of their water through their skin or by absorbing it from the ground or puddles through small prehensile roots beneath their fur. These roots can also be used to expel the fluff from their body and allow for movement. The leaves can also be moved to simulate flight. Even with these adaptations cottonee are still far slower than the average human.

Unlike cottonee, whimsicott have an apparently mammalian body. Instead of skin whimsicott have a thin layer of bark. They have functional mouths and a crude digestive system that lets them supplement photosynthesis with bugs, shrubs, and flowers. The nervous system of whimsicott is poorly understood. There are a few clusters of what appear to be nerves but nothing sophisticated enough to explain the species' intelligence. The subject is of much interest in the fields of biology and computer science.

Whimsicott have a lot more fluff than their preevolution. They also are significantly more mobile, with limbs outside of their fluff allowing them to move freely without discarding most of their mass. Whimsicott's roots are also much longer than cottonee's, allowing for more versatile movements of the fluff. These tendrils also make whimsicott fluff relatively hard to harvest without the pokémon's active participation. Machines struggle to keep up with the quickly moving tendrils and manual harvesters often struggle to remove one pokémon's fluff without getting a hand full of thorns for their trouble.

It isn't entirely clear why whimsicott evolved fluff in the first place. It makes them vulnerable to being blown away by wind or bogged down by rain on top of being a very noticeable target. The leading theory is that it lets cottonee (and, more rarely, whimsicott) band together to form a large fluffy mass that can weigh up to several tons. The sheer size of cottonee clouds scares off many would-be predators. These clouds have also been known to bury small towns they roll into. When whimsicott form clouds it appears to be for the sole purpose of burying towns or causing similar mischief. If one is caught alone during strong winds it can travel long distances, carrying its genetic material with it and allowing for genetic mixing between populations or the introduction of cottonee to new lands.

Whimsicott can grow up to 28 centimeters tall and weigh up to 1.5 kilograms, both measurements excluding fluff.

Behavior

Cottonee tend to live in factories of fifty to over one thousand individuals. On calm days the cottonee will disperse and spread their leaves in the sunlight. The species prefers to live at the edge of forests where the factory can anchor themselves near flat, sunny land. When the winds pick up or predators approach all members of the factory will bunch together, link roots, and form a giant cloud.

Whimsicott tend to be far more active and independent than their preevolutions. They also harbor a particular animus towards humanity, possibly a grudge formed in the last few centuries of large-scale cottonee agriculture. Whimsicott are known to break into homes. While not literally capable of going "anywhere the wind may flow" as one poet put it, whimsicott can still fit into any space their emolga-sized body can and then drag their fluff behind through clever use of control tendrils. Once inside a dwelling the pokémon are prone to scattering fluff everywhere, breaking and hiding objects, harassing any weak pokémon or non-pokémon pets, clogging drains and turning the faucets on, and various other pranks. Tobacco products are almost always stolen.

Serious crimes have been reported but never confirmed. One alleged murder became sensationalized before a group of teenage sleuths and their talking boltund revealed that a cottonee magnate had faked his own death and scattered fluff around the scene in order to justify the recapture of wild cottonee and escape his debts. He maintains to this day that he would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for meddling kids.

In the wild whimsicott are known to pull pranks and steal food from other species. They are seldom retaliated against because they keep pranks relatively minor and are known to help out other species. When a young pokémon is sick or injured whimsicott often bring food to them and harass any predators that approach. Sometimes whimsicott donate fluff to be used as bedding. In fact whimsicott willingly donated fluff to humans to make clothing until just a few centuries ago. In some parts of the world they still do.

Husbandry

In the pre-industrial era cottonee farms tended to just be fields with good soil, irrigation trenches, and large poles erected in them at suitable distances. Cottonee would flock to the area on their own accord and rarely leave. Post-industrial facilities tended to keep cottonee chained to each other and the poles to prevent any escape. At harvest time the field was often flooded to limit the cottonee's ability or desire to resist fluff removal, a task itself made easier with damp fluff. Removal was often brutal for workers and pokémon alike as the plants would sometimes lash out with their thorny roots. Most farm owners authorized root removal before harvesting or even the wholesale slaughter of the crop. The corpses would then be used to fertilize the earth before another factory of cottonee was brought in.

The introduction of the pokéball led to the phasing out of chain-based farming in favor of pokéball-based containment methods. This was done more for practical reasons than ethical ones. Until the late 19th Century it was widely believed that plant-based pokémon were incapable of feeling pain.

Nowadays many operations harvest fluff with either machines or steel-type pokémon with relatively dexterous appendages. Some still persist in the developing world that rely on cheap labor and lax laws for harvesting. In addition to their thorns, cottonee are capable of secreting a substance into their fluff that causes hives to break out on any exposed skin. These reactions can continue for weeks after the substance is washed off and even leave permanent discoloration or scarring.

Trainers not operating at an industrial level can treat cottonee much like any grass-type. They requires several hours a day of photosynthesis time and frequent access to either standing bodies of water or moist soils. Placing a cottonee directly in deep water might kill and will certainly irritate the pokémon. At night cottonee prefer to either be inside their pokéball or allowed to cling to something. Many trainers have reported their cottonee cuddling with available stuffed animals or pillows.

Fluff harvesting and contact is generally safe so long as the pokémon is not momentarily irritated or chronically stressed. Dangerous secretions are only released during battle or when assessing a potential threat. Cottonee are usually tolerant of being petted or hugged and whimsicott often initiate such contact. Harvesting fluff is somewhat risky and should only be done after consulting a specialist guide. Ideally a professional botanist or veterinarian will supervise the trainer the first few times. While harvesting is not necessary it is a good source of knitting materials. The so-called "ethical fluff" industry is also willing to pay for fluff harvested by traveling trainers.

Whimsicott typically loathe pokéballs of all sorts. Even luxury and solar balls are often rejected. While they are willing to tolerate pokéballs for a short period of time if a clear purpose is given or while injured, it is recommended that trainers use the ball very sparingly. Unlike virtually all plant pokémon whimsicott require a lot of enrichment. Puzzles, mazes, strange objects, and similarly intelligent playmates are all good options. If a whimsicott gets bored it will create their own entertainment, often at its trainer's expense. Trainers looking for a cute and cuddly pet that does not require as much attention may want to look into emolga, dedenne, togedemaru, or komala instead.

Unlike cottonee, whimsicott require food beyond sunlight, water, and the occasional dip in good soils. Insect mixes, shoots, leaves, and flowers are all acceptable food sources. At first all four should be provided in abundance. Over time the whimsicott will settle on a steady diet and only their typical daily needs can be provided. Nuts and fruit can be sparingly used as treats.

Illness

Cottonee that live in areas with highly metallic soils often struggle to thrive and produce very thin fluff with clumps missing. This is easily rectified by moving them to an area with less metal in the soil. Iron content is usually inversely proportional to pH. Soil acidity is highly variable across Alola. Garden supply stores often sell soils with a high pH. Counterintuitively, cottonee can benefit from sharing a team with a steel-type so long as the partner actively consumes minerals in the soil. Alolan dugtrio is a great teammate because it tills the soil and removes excess iron.

Cottonee and whimsicott are very illness prone for plant pokémon. Many of these illnesses take the form of either a thin layer of mold or fungus spreading across the pokémon's surface or discoloration, foul odors, and eventually rot in the core body. Both are usually carried by small parasites. Unfortunately centuries of selective breeding have greatly reduced the potency of cottonee's repellant chemicals against parasites. The introduction of Aztec cottonee to most of the world and breeding for tamer and less colorful cottonee has also led to a dearth of genetic diversity that can leave populations highly vulnerable to viruses. At the first sign of trouble the pokémon should be taken to a veterinarian. Potentially sick individuals should be separated from conspecifics immediately.

Evolution

Modern cottonee seldom evolve. In the past enough sunlight, nutrients, and time would almost inevitably trigger an evolution. Industrial era owners did not appreciate whimsicott's pranks and propensity for fleeing the farm. As such newly evolved whimsicott were almost always put down, often in brutal ways to "set an example." The psychological effect was largely futile as evolution was far more akin to human puberty's onset than a conscious choice. Now evolution requires luck and supplemental leaf and sun stones, as well as plenty of battle experience and sunlight. Trainers are recommended to keep their cottonee in photosynthesis rooms at night while staying in Pokémon Centers.

Whimsicott are flash evolvers. Due to cottonee's ordinarily low activity levels and the uncertainties induced by selective breeding it is difficult to predict how close one is to evolving.

Battle

Hard stall is defined by the use of incredibly bulky pokémon that can repeatedly take hits, heal themselves or shrug off the damage, and then do a little damage back. Over long brutal battles of attrition the hard stall team may eventually prevail. At the opposite end of the strategy spectrum is hyper offense. These teams revolve around creating opportunities for fast sweepers to set up and either badly weaken their best check on the opposing team or take out multiple opponents. At some point one sweeper will finally set up with no good checks remaining and claim victory. Hyper offense pokémon are typically unable to take many hits and rely upon solid matchups, baton pass, or defensive screens to set up.

Quickstall is a strange fusion of the two. Battles are won by attrition but the pokémon cannot take many hits. Whimsicott is a great example of this playstyle. On the competitive circuits whimsicott do best when they come in on something that cannot seriously hurt them. Leech seed is used to put the opponent on a timer and start restoring the whimsicott's health. Then the whimsicott relies on its natural speed to dodge attacks and throw up obstacles to keep their own health pristine. When possible attacks such as toxic, magical leaf, or moonblast can be used to accelerate the process. A well-trained whimsicott can nonetheless stay untouched and unharmed for over an hour in the right circumstances.

The strategy has a handful of hard counters. Most grass-types or plant-based pokémon can ignore leech seed entirely and aren't seriously harmed by whimsicott's grass attacks and plant-derived poisons. Whimsicott struggle to do damage to these opponents and without leech seed recovery will exhaust themselves sooner rather than later. Magic guard users and other pokémon capable of negating passive damage also hurt whimsicott and are quite capable of countering a quickstall team on their own. Finally pokémon that are faster than whimsicott can prevent successful setup. Particularly powerful heat wave and hurricane users are dangerous opponents capable of burning through or blowing away enough fluff to strike at the pokémon underneath it.

Thankfully the island challenge is short on extremely fast or powerful pokémon. Even totems without a type advantage can struggle to outpace a well-trained whimsicott. Leech seed is the most essential move to master. Then barriers such as substitute, cotton guard, and protect should be worked on. The rest of a whimsicott's training at the casual level should be devoted to agility and evasion drills where the pokémon must dodge weak attacks from teammates. Some guides recommend teaching hurricane to whimsicott to bypass grass-types. However if a whimsicott is fighting other grass-types it will probably lose regardless of what weak attacks it knows.

Cottonee are not suited to quickstall. With leech seed and a grass- or fairy-type attack they can make passable walls or bulky pivots in low level competitions. Attempting to dodge anything is an exercise in futility. Like gyarados, golisopod, and milotic a prospective whimsicott trainer must suffer through a great deal of losing battles before finally getting a powerful ally.

Acquisition

Permanent whimsicott capture is prohibited to help bolster the wild population of naturally evolving cottonee. These whimsicott are not expected to stay on the archipelago where they are invasive. Instead wild-caught whimsicott can be handed over to the DNR for export to their native range in the mainland. The DNR is willing to pay bounties of $500 for naturally occurring whimsicott.

Cottonee are most common in the areas around the tapu meadows. The edges of forests are also good places to find them. Through drifting clouds cottonee have established themselves on all four tapu islands and several of the minor ones. While not as overabundant as raticate or gumshoos, it is not particularly hard to find cottonee. While some may be initially resistant to capture most quickly adjust to captivity so long as adequate sunbathing opportunities are provided.

Cottonee can be captured, adopted, or purchased with a Class II license. Whimsicott can be adopted or purchased with a Class III license.

Breeding

Unlike almost all pokémon, the final stage of the cottonee line is incapable of reproduction. Instead cottonee reproduce and then become sterile upon evolution. In the early Spring cottonee release huge clouds of spores. Some of these spores collide and bond with another. The pair then summons latent grass energy to form a seed. Once the cottonee drift on all local whimsicott come together to bury and look after the seeds. The new cottonee stay in place for roughly two months before becoming large and fluffy enough to venture out on their own. Some of the whimsicott will watch after them for another month before the new factory is finally left alone.

Captive breeding of cottonee is virtually impossible outside of large factories. Even with the sheer number of spores produced bonding can still be relatively unlikely. In any case the need to stay put for long periods of time is not helpful for many traveling trainers.

Subspecies

The Indian cottonee are rather arboreal. In fact they are symbiotic with a tree species that lives on the subcontinent. The tree produces no leaves but makes many branches that grow out horizontally. Cottonee burrow into these branches and use them for protection from windstorms. In return the cottonee give some of their extra glucose to the tree so that it may survive. This subspecies was rendered nearly extinct in the 18th and 19th centuries. The new large-scale farmers began clearing the trees and exterminating the cottonee to make room for new farms of Mesoamerican (and later domesticated) cottonee. While the population has begun to recover in recent decades less than 50,000 individuals remain.

Wild Mesoamerican cottonee are also nearly extinct. This subspecies is very similar to their domesticated counterpart, albeit with a smaller size, thicker and thornier tendrils, and more toxic fluff. The whimsicott of Mesoamerica had an established relationship with the local peoples, giving fluff in exchange for shelter. The Aztec Triple Alliance was the hub of a continent-wide trade in fluff and local artisans had become skilled at making it safe to touch. Many of these methods and customs were lost in the race to replace conventional harvesting with large-scale agriculture to keep up with production in other parts of the world. As in India wild populations were eliminated wholesale. Today the subspecies is limited to national parks and other protected areas in Anahuac, Texas, and Orre.


End file.
